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# Sorrell’s Exit from WPP Raises Speculation of Break-Up
- URL: https://capitolcommunicator.com/sorrells-exit-from-wpp-raises-speculation-of-break-up/
- Published: 2018-04-16T13:00:29.000Z
- Updated: 2018-04-16T13:04:48.000Z
- Author: Capitol Communicator
- Tags: B to B, #wp-top-center-sponsored, #Import 2026-10-08 18:49

**Martin Sorrell’s abrupt exit from WPP Plc leaves the worldwide advertising empire** in search of a new chief executive officer for the first time and vulnerable to a break-up, as the sprawling network of agencies faces its biggest challenges since the global financial crisis, reports [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-16/wpp-hunt-for-sorrell-successor-heralds-empire-strategy-shift?ref=capitolcommunicator.com), which added that “Sorrell’s departure late Saturday from the world’s largest ad company puts WPP’s omissions in grooming a successor to its 73-year-old founder into sharp focus, even with shareholders long flagging the issue. It also raises the prospect of a split, as WPP loses the man holding the empire together.

“The shares fell as much as 6.6 percent with WPP’s future strategy now unclear. Sorrell, who turned a 1985 investment in a wire shopping basket manufacturer into today’s behemoth of more than 200,000 employees, was long seen as irreplaceable — the man pulling the strings to connect its more than 400 agencies who create marketing campaigns for clients such as [Coca-Cola Co](https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/KO:US?ref=capitolcommunicator.com)[.](https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/KO:US?ref=capitolcommunicator.com) and Procter & Gamble Co. Now, the group faces pitches from investment bankers pushing asset sales or a more dramatic dissolution.

““The cataclysmic thing has happened,” Alex DeGroote, a media analyst at Cenkos Securities, said by phone. “People are scared there’s another profit warning coming. They are in a negative tailspin.””

In the D.C. area, WPP’s holding include:

- AKQA
- Blue State Digital
- Burson Marsteller
- Cohn & Wolfe
- Hill + Knowlton
- ISL
- J. Walter Thompson
- Ogilvy
- The Glover Park Group
- Wunderman