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LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - WPP, the world's
biggest advertising company, on Thursday said it would not pay
former CEO Martin Sorrell his share incentive awards due to what
it said were leaks of confidential client information to the
media.
WPP said its compensation committee determined that the
five-year 2016 and 2017 EPSP Awards granted to Sorrell would
lapse.
The decision was made due to "Sir Martin Sorrell’s
disclosure of confidential information belonging to WPP and
certain of its clients to the media during his tenure as a WPP
director," WPP said.
Sorrell was not immediately available for comment.
Sorrell launched WPP in 1985 and built it into the world's
biggest advertising company through a string of major deals to
offer advertising, media buying services, pr and data analytics
to global brands such as Ford, HSBC and Unilever.
He left the British firm in 2018 over a complaint about
personal misconduct which he always denied. He has since
launched a new digital advertising company that already has a
market value of 3 billion pounds ($4.2 billion) and a large
roster of clients.
($1 = 0.7169 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)