Member Info for Jcj07

Pleasure Nige

I found this interview by Deborah Malone (the same lady who recently interviewed Sir Martin) really interesting.

It seems the ad- agencies clients have been behaving badly. This is discussed in the later part of the interview.

They touch in how the in house agency staff are often treated unfavourably, I also took from this interview how the clients are starving the agencies of the income necessary for the agencies themselves to train their staff and invest in the necessary software and development.

It seems the model needs to change so agencies get paid for outcomes/ results in order to remain profitable.

Link below

https://youtu.be/m8pLmUamjd4?si=NiFDaeBFYbMdZLER

Juan still holds 28221762 shares with nearly £11mill, any selling wouldn't be showing under directors selling as he is a strategic advisor. Whilst he has sold shares, which in my view I rate as negative, specially as he is an advisor, it's slightly reassuring that he has only sold 0.5% of his holdings.

Juan Zambrano being originally the founder of firewood, then merged with Media.monks end of 2019 I think or thereabouts

Juan Zambrano (a strategic advisor at S4) showing a reduction also of nearly 0.5%

Nige

If you look at the employee stock ownership plan, there has been a reduction of 6.81%. This could well be for to the massive reduction in numbers of employees in the last 5-6 months.

Verney

Most people here got burned, myself more than most probably at -45k in the hole (68% down). So perhaps, with this in mind, I find comments made by the few rather than those of most people likely to be more valuable, even when put forward in a blunt manner.

**naive

Verney

Pokership makes some good points though. I much prefer his comments to that of LifeIArisk "noted how certain negative comments have started too....LOL..." if this new poster thinks a share which has dropped 95% is not deserving of negative comments, this new character is very native indeed.

Pokerchips

Yes we all know it's difficult to forecast in a rapid declining environment, however, as 404x says, 3 warnings in one year?? Furthermore, reiterating guidance 3 weeks prior to trading statement to then find the reiteration to be so far off the mark, in my opinion, inexcusable for a man of this caliber & experience. There are other issues relating to poor comms.

Anyway, moving forward and leaving past aside, the issues I see going forth;

Generative AI working against small ad agencies

A lot of the S4 people working in house for Meta, Netflix etc jumping ship and working directly for the them, if they are really that good at what they do I'm sure Meta and the likes would employ them directly, hence resulting in loss of talent.

S4 being out of his depth in this new paradigm shift, i.e working from home etc

Listen to SMS time after time saying that he wishes his employees were like bots so that each one knew what all the others are doing and viceversa. This tells me he has little control and it is out of his depth.

We might be in awe at his knowledge of the macro and geopolitical but what we need Martin to do is to run the business well.

Do you ever hear Mark Zuckerberg talk much about geopolitics?? The answer is no, however, he runs his business efficiently and profitably.

GoCPI

I wish I share your optimism. Most markets have had a good run, specially the US, when they enter correction, it will bring the rest down with the usual low quality companies such as S4 suffering the most!

Ntl & 404

Great summaries, I fully agree with both assessments!

The trend is firmly down here, the only way this goes up is with good numbers, period. I wouldn't be surprised if we make new lows in the next few days. This is a typical Jam tomorrow stock. It's simply delusional to think otherwise. Just listen to SMS interviews, it tells you all you need to know, pessimistic and the bigger getting bigger, probably decimating the smaller in the process!

Watching SMS interviews, its always the same, doom & gloom! Meanwhile, proper companies using AI have shot up tremendously!

I think SMS has lost control, you only have to hear his opinion time after time on Gen Z being almost unmanageable, wanting to work from home etc.

S4 has far too many chiefs with huge salaries and contributing very little to the growth of this company, in fact, probably suffocating it. Imagine if we were in a bear market, this is just a company in terminal decline. I hope I'm wrong for my sake and those LTH, the signs and trend point to a company in trouble and SMS outlook does not help. To me S4 is turning out to be all hype and no substance, in regards to SMS, despite his knowledge, a one time wonder!

GoCpi, caveman

As predicted! Dog!

Caveman

Why is that mate? Care to elaborate?

I expect we will have another awful day tomorrow!

1msn

What's has Palantir got in common with S4?

Cheers

Auson

Sharebuybacks

1st Feb 94256

2 Feb 317219

5 Feb 236328

Not that it matters with this dog

A company in terminal decline it seems!

Rocket

Meta and S4 bear no resemblance. If anything, the big players are driving their own AI efficiencies in house and hence cutting the middle man out. I wish I never heard of Martin effing Sorrell, how he can go on galavanting the globe with his head up high whilst his company and shareholders fade into insignificance is beyond me!