World’s Biggest Ad Agency Suffers Worst Stock Drop Since 1999
- Advertising leader suffering from shifts in client spending
- Founder Martin Sorrell responding by faster corporate revamp
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Martin Sorrell knows a few things about disruption, having built a global advertising empire from scratch from a shell of a company that made wire baskets.
But the tectonic shifts now shaking the industry have put the world’s largest advertising group and its 73-year-old chief on the defensive. On Thursday, WPP Plc announced a bleak outlook, following two cuts to its sales forecast last year that Sorrell called embarrassing. Shareholders anticipating a rebound from the company’s worst annual performance since the financial crisis were left disappointed.