One of the great things about this industry – and particularly in the M&A space – is its ability to constantly surprise you. Here at Green Square, I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve said “Nobody saw that one coming!” Life’s never dull, that’s for sure. It happened again this week, with the private […]
Even by the old buccaneer’s standards, it was a daring, improbable approach – one that may have been rebuffed, but which may spark off one of the biggest media bunfights in history. I’m talking, of course, about Rupert Murdoch’s audacious $80bn (£46.7bn) bid for Time Warner on Wednesday (16 July). Although the move on first […]
All customers are not created equal and sometimes they can be more trouble than they are worth. Here’s how to deal with the difficult ones: 1. Decide what the problem is. Work out exactly why they are difficult. Is it because they take up so much of your time with endless demands? Is it because […]
After a month’s worth of rumour and speculation, Apple finally confirmed its purchase of the Beats headphone and streaming business (or, to give it its full name, Beats Electronics) this week for a staggering $3bn (about £1.85bn). The deal, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year, is made up of […]
Its unravelling was as fast and as surprising as its announcement: the $35bn Publicis-Omnicom merger – the biggest deal in the history of advertising – is off, it emerged this morning. Without doubt the biggest – and most unexpected – M&A story of last year when it was announced nine months ago, the deal now […]
ISP is the one of the largest independent foster care agencies in the UK with over 300 children in care across seven centres. It offers a unique integrated model of therapeutic foster care, specialist education, contact centres and leaving care. Run by a team of eight, many who were nearing retirement, the time had come […]
We’ve often written in The Drum over the past year or so about non-marcomms companies getting in on the marcomms game, be they the likes of news and magazine distributor John Menzies, or the big consultancies and auditors like Grant Thornton and McKinsey. But for the established marketing communications groups, there is a perhaps still […]
“One of the reasons this is happening,” commentators said last year when news of the Publicis-Omnicom mega-merger first broke, “is because Publicis is strong in digital and Omnicom isn’t”. And they had a point – although it possessed a blue-chip portfolio of “traditional’ agencies, Omnicom lagged behind both Publicis and WPP when it came to […]
We’re all used to Silicon Valley giants paying sky-high prices for tiny companies yet to make a profit, but $19bn? Unless you’ve been in some sort of news-free bubble in the last day or so, you will of course have heard that yesterday (late last night UK time), 19 February, Facebook paid $19bn for WhatsApp. […]
Rather than writing about the week’s big news – IPG’s much commented upon purchase of Profero – I thought that it might be more interesting to look at another massive deal, which arguably has far bigger ramifications in the long to medium term, and which may be the most important, far-reaching deal we have ever […]