Member Info for Auson

Papa65,

Well he has put about £50 million of his own money in this to back himself, a considerable portion of his net worth !

TATE & LYLE PLC BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. 0.49% -0.01% 9 Dec 2025

WOLFOFLSE,

Google have had their own in house creative agency ( The Creative Lab ) since 2007, headed up by a former a Ogilvy Creative Director and Copywriter. You could ask why have they spent HUGE amounts for 13 years with external agencies including WPP when they could have done it all in house ?

I think the answer is

1) They are a tech platform and don't want to be an ad agency.

2) They know they can't ...agentic AI ads without human creative concept an ideation are shyte.

3)They sell media and so can't be a media buying agency/ platform.

4) They are already being prosecuted for monopoly practices.

Google was fined €2.95 billion by the European Commission in September 2025 for abusing its dominant position in the ad tech industry by favoring its own services, resulting in a penalty for breaching EU antitrust rules.

www.exchange4media.com/digital-news/google-consolidates-global-media-account-with-wpp-owned-essence-116889.html

I would have thought with credibility completely shot with the late accounts debacle the auditors absolutely must be one of the big 4 !

Lse2000,

The money Martin put into this company was his own money and was/ is not in dispute. There was or is a claim regarding I think mostly share based bonus payments which WPP withheld from him due to him pipping them to the post in buying Media Monks which both WPP and Martin Sorrell wanted for around £250million if memory serves.

As usual you have no idea what you are talking about.

Shorters taking advantage of post dividend selling.

Play the long game here will pay off eventually !

A-T_G,

Low free float would make it more volatile no ?

A_T_G,

I thought high retail/ low institutional ownership was a supposed to be bad thing ?

Any how very approximately

SMS 51.5million

Wes and Victor 37 million

Jan Zambrano 28.1 million

Martin Christopher S 6million

Pete Kim Trust 4 million

As a very approximate I've got about 50% held by institutions and circa 19% held by insiders.

RunS4,

I think you are right and they are cutting staff. Could it be the GM win revenue is taking longer to come through than anticipated ?

From GM's October update

Updated 2025 guidance Previous 2025 guidance

Net income attributable to stockholders $7.7 billion - $8.3 billion $7.7 billion - $9.5 billion

Schroders Increasing holdings

5.028373% reduced to 4.993032%

Date on which the threshold was crossed or reached

18-Nov-2025

Schroders

4.993032% increased to 5.068742%

Date on which the threshold was crossed or reached

19-Nov-2025

Pokerchips,

Is it Open AI who they are vendor financing ? But after that US DOE ?

Phrontist,

Any thoughts on the existential threat AI poses to Google and Meta ad revenues ?

Phrontist,

I think Publicis would beg to differ.

2024 Earnings $16.03billion up 8.3% vs 2023

2025 predicted earnings $16.92billion

2026 predicted earnings $17.63billion

'Ending 2024 as world’s largest advertising group:

o +6.3% organic growth in Q4, leading to +5.8% for the full year

o Strong FY performance across all regions: U.S. at +4.9%, Europe +5.4%, Asia Pacific at +6.3%

• Maintained industry-leading financial KPIs: 18% operating margin rate, headline EPS up +4.9% at €7.30,

free cash flow at €1.84 billion'

Sparz,

Buffet wanted it for £9.25 a share way back when. Not quite fire sale but its probably as cheap as its going to get.

Rocket79,

Have you got an up to date holding for Martin Sorrell ?

CharlesMunger,

Sure employ a new CEO award her £6m in shares then one of the first things she does is pay out probably another £6m to consultants to check her strategy is ok.

WPP net debt £3.3billion almost double 2024 net debt figure ( £1.7billion ) and close to 2 times EBITDA. SFOR net debt £151m down from £180m in 2024 and £210m before that close to 1.8 times EBITDA

Rocket79,

Whats source are you using for holdings ?

Rocket79,

Not much looking at the markets response to the rumours. I think Silchester were buying at £8

'A “quiet activist” has built a £500m stake in WPP amid speculation the ad giant could face pressure to break up its business.

London-based Silchester International Investors has increased its holding in WPP to more than 5pc, making it the third largest shareholder.'

'WPP’s market capitalisation has fallen to just over £9bn – down from a peak of around £25bn in 2017 – valuing Silchester’s stake at £470m'

'A source close to WPP denied that it was facing calls from investors for a break-up or sale, adding that the market would better reflect WPP’s value once its digital transformation programme was complete.'

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/08/quiet-activist-builds-500m-stake-wpp-shares-slide/

CharlesMunger,

Do you think WPP would be where it is now if they hadn't got rid of Sorrell ?

RunS4,

Just things I have heard, and it would apply to the UK, Netherlands, Poland, Argentina all on global accounts.

There is or was lots of stuff online places like Glassdoor and the like with employees suffering burnout.

for example

'Employees at S4 Capital are overworked, with minimal ownership or accountability for their tasks. Additionally, inadequate training and inefficient internal '