Of all the established industries disrupted by the disruptive technology that is the internet, none has been more badly battered than the music business. There’s a certain irony in this – the music biz embraced digital technology enthusiastically (as both a format in the form of CDs, and as technology, such as the use of […]
This week I thought it appropriate to travel north of the border (somewhere, surprisingly enough, we haven’t yet ventured), home to this esteemed publication – and Scotland’s biggest agency, Leith. Based in Edinburgh, the Leith Agency has long been Scotland’s highest-profile marcoms shop. There has always been a thriving media and marketing scene in Scotland […]
We’re delighted to announce the sale of corporate communications and public affairs agency Madano Partnership to Canada’s largest PR group, NATIONAL Public Relations Inc. NATIONAL PR, which owns healthcare consultancy Axon Communications, has acquired Madano Partnership as the French-Canadian conglomerate looks to grow internationally, particularly in the UK and Europe. Green Square acted as advisors […]
WPP is to marcoms holding groups what Tesco is to retail. None of the advertising giants is as closely scrutinised as Sir Martin Sorrell’s global behemoth. Like Tesco, it is often seen as a bellwether for the rest of the industry. Whenever Tesco prospers, or stutters, or embarks on a new venture, the rest of […]
Scarcely a fortnight ago the Green Square Deal Monitor was buzzing with news of new acquisitions by Aegis Media. Over the past week it seems to have gone up another gear. As we’ve said before, Aegis has never been short of ambition and energy, but following its just-short-of-$5bn buyout by the Japanese giant Dentsu earlier […]
Since the beginning of the year my partners Tony and Andrew, as well as myself, have been commenting on a busy M&A market. However, more recently the activity seems to have jumped up yet another level, with no less than 13 major deals appearing on the Green Square “Deal Monitor” in just six weeks. It […]
If I were to ask you for a list of the most dynamic advertising markets in the world, chances are that Mauritius would not be among them. As you might expect for an exclusive holiday destination, it has a thriving tourist industry. But did you know that the island – which has an area of […]
Business, they say, is a lot like life – and so it is. In life, particularly at times of crisis or upheaval, it is not the strongest, or most intelligent, organisms which survive to pass their genes to future generations – it is the most adaptable; this, truly, is Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” – […]
A notable trend on the mergers and acquisitions scene over the past year or so has been the acquisition of marketing agencies (or at least entities which could be said to be at least partially engaged in one of the disciplines of marketing) by companies not directly engaged in the business of marketing itself. One […]
First off this week, I wanted to throw a thought out there, prompted by the sad news last week that HMV, the sole remaining High Street music and DVD chain, had gone into administration. This a blow to the multi-billion pound music biz, which is still one of the UK’s biggest export industries, and one […]