Sir Martin Sorrell, as we all know, likes to expand into new and growth territories: Asia-Pacific of course, but also India, South America, southern Africa, the old Communist bloc countries of Eastern Europe and Turkey. But I wonder what Sir Martin will be thinking about Iran. I suspect he and other ambitious figures in the […]
Back in May, I wrote about US mobile phone giant Verizon buying AOL for $4.4bn, and about how it was a great deal for both acquired, and, especially, the acquirer. Two months on I still hold by that view, especially following the news late last week that that AOL was stalking mobile ad network Millennial […]
Over the past few months we’ve found ourselves talking a lot about what’s known as ‘content’ – storytelling, which is after all at the very heart of marketing communications. A great story is still the most effective way of cutting though media clutter, and it’s been clear for some time that video marketing is a […]
I was fortunate enough to be at Cannes Lions last week, networking, enjoying the glitz, the mecca that is the Palais, seeing some great work, rosé on the Carlton Terrace, catching up with old friends and celeb-spotting… But for me the most interesting piece of news of the week was not the awards or the […]
Sometimes ad agencies and networks are like the proverbial London bus: you never hear from or about them for ages, then all of a sudden they engage in a flurry of activity. So it is with Dentsu. In the three years my colleagues and I have been writing this blog, we hardly ever wrote about […]
All companies, if they are to remain vibrant, exciting and increase their value, need to grow. A small start-up company has to grow just as a giant holding company like Omnicom or WPP does – treading water just leads to stagnation. And, of course, you need to grow without over-leveraging yourself and becoming burdened with […]
This month I wanted to return to two old friends we have written about several times before – St Ives Group and the Mission Group. St Ives, you may recall, was originally a commercial printer founded in 1964 which grew huge in the 1980s on the back of web printing and the newspaper and magazine […]
The cards and decorations have come down, the hangovers have abated and the country is drifting back, slowly, and perhaps unwillingly, to work. Time, then, to look back – briefly – on 2014 and forward to 2015. 2014 was an interesting year for mergers and acquisitions, with some of the few large indies being snapped […]
Yahoo’s high-profile chief, Marissa Meyer, is rarely out of the news these days, whether it’s for having twins then dashing back to work; holding lavish $7m parties to the chagrin of certain investors; or buying up firms left right and centre. Miss Meyer has been nothing if not acquisitive since she became chief. I did […]
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 […]