|
|
Mark PennMark Penn has assumed the helm of MDC Partners as his Stagwell Group agrees to pump a $100M equity infusion into the financially strapped ad/PR company.
With the investment, MDC has called off its strategic review and search for a CEO.
Irwin Simon, MDC's presiding director, called Penn "a strategic operator" who "as a marketer, agency founder, global thought leader and investor will be critical to bolstering our structure, solutions and services."
Before launching Stagwell, Penn was executive VP/chief strategy officer at Microsoft, CEO of Burson-Marsteller, co-founder of Penn Schoen Berland, and pollster/advisor for Bill and Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, Bill Ford and Bill Gates.
He called MDC a place brimming with "some of the world’s best creative and strategic talent; strategists with a deep understanding of the way technology and media solutions address the needs of today’s modern marketer."
MDC's PR firms include Hunter, Allison+Partners, KWT Global and Sloane & Co.
Stagwell's investment roster include Finn Partners and SKDKnickerbocker.
Public Policy Holding Company registered 23.8 percent Q3 growth to $48.8M, with organic growth contributing 4.5 percent and the balance driven by merger & acquisition activity.
Publicis Groupe reported 3.1 percent in Q3 growth to $4B, sparked by a 3.6 percent jump North America, its biggest market.
WPP suffered a 10.2 percent drop in 1H revenues to $6.7B and a 47.8 percent plunge in operating profit to $297M.
Interpublic reported Q2 net revenues dropped 6.6 percent to $2.2B and operating income tumbled 23.4 percent to $243.7M. 
WPP has adopted a gloomier profit and sales forecast due to a deteriorating Q2 financial performance triggered by weak client spending as companies cope with the challenging economic backdrop.
