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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 shares have been dropped from the London Stock Exchange’s prestigious FTSE 100 index as its stock market price has plunged by two-thirds this year.
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.
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.
