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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I had the pleasure of writing this article from Australia (where I was for the last couple of weeks of the year), whilst absorbing myself in the marketing culture of this fine country. As everyone knows, Australia is not only vast, but a long way away. However, it’s not vast in population terms at 23.4 […]
The new year couldn’t have gotten off to a better start – at least for M&A buffs in the marcomms industry. Just yesterday (9 January), Yannick Bolloré, the newly-installed boss at holding group Havas, seemingly left the door open on the subject of whether Havas may be sold at some stage in the future. The […]
So, farewell then 2013, the year that saw the biggest deal (the $35bn Publicis-Omnicom mega-merger) in the history of the marketing communications industry. It was a good year for anyone with even a passing interest in mergers and acquisitions, but what of 2014? What does next year hold – and for the big international groups […]
The deal that really caught my eye this week was Apple’s buyout of the ‘social analytics’ firm Topsy Labs on Tuesday. Apple paid $200m for the company – which collects data from Twitter that potentially provides insights into social media users’ viewing habits – and it raised a lot of eyebrows. Now, $200m may be […]