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| Mark Read |
WPP suffered a 10.2 percent drop in 1H revenues to $6.7B and a 47.8 percent plunge in operating profit to $297M.
Exiting CEO Mark Read, who headed WPP for seven years, said he’s “never seen a more volatile environment from a client perspective.”
The board slashed the interim dividend in half to 7.5p, and announced a review of strategy and capital allocation policy to be led by incoming CEO Cindy Rose, who takes the helm on Sept. 1.
The Microsoft alum is charged with driving sustainable growth supported by an appropriate level of financial flexibility while balancing returns to shareholders, according to Read.
He said WPP made “significant progress on the repositioning of WPP Media, simplifying its organizational model to increase effectiveness and reduce costs.”
WPP reduced its headcount by 7,000 people during the past year, which includes 1,400 staffers at FGS Global, which was sold to KKR. It now has 104K employees.
On the PR front, Burson reported a 7.8 percent revenue drop in Q2 compared to a 1.5 percent gain in 2024, due to the challenging environment for client discretionary spending.
WPP expects full-year 2025 revenues will slide in the three-to-five percent range.
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
Public Policy Holding Company today priced its initial public offering at $12.25 per share. The sale of 4,150,000 shares raised $50.8M in gross proceeds.
Public Policy Holding Company reports that 4Q '25 revenues surged 27.8 percent to $49.9M. Organic growth rose 5.4 percent.
