 Mark Penn |
Stagwell Group chief Mark Penn is negotiating to assume the helm of MDC Partners and take an investment stake in the troubled ad/PR firm, according to the Wall Street Journal.
MDC, which faces a proxy fight at its June 4 shareholder meeting, has been conducting a strategic review.
The firm, which is the parent of Hunter, Allison+Partners, KWT Global and Sloane & Co., lost $36.2M during the nine-month ended September period on $1.1B in revenues.
It has long-term debt of $987M.
MDC CEO Scott Kauffman announced in September that he plans to step down once a successor is named.
Penn, former pollster for Bill and Hillary Clinton, ex-Burson Marsteller CEO and Microsoft chief strategy officer, had earlier tried to buy MDC with Apollo Global Management, according to the WSJ.
Stagwell's holdings include Finn Partners and SDKKnickerbocker.
S&P Global has reaffirmed its negative “BBB” rating on WPP due to ongoing challenges that it will face during the next 12 months.
Stagwell’s Q4 revenues grew two percent to $807M while adjusted EBITDA rose three percent to $129M.
WPP CEO Cindy Rose unveiled “Elevate 28,” a strategic plan to simplify the troubled company, which reported a 5.4 percent drop in 2025 revenues to $13.6B.
Omnicom CEO John Wren reported a Q4 $977.2M operating loss, largely due to the $1.1B in severance and repositioning expenses connected to the $13B Interpublic takeover that closed on Nov. 26.
Publicis Groupe reports an 8.8 percent rise in 2025 net revenues to $16.4B with
