Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital emerged as the top bidder for Media Monk marking its first victory against WPP. According to WSJ, Sorrell and his team will be dishing out around €300 million for MediaMonks in cash and shares. The digital production company MediaMonks currently has offices in Singapore, Shanghai, Dubai, Europe and US.
This is Sorrell’s first acquisition since resigning from WPP. Over the past few days, headlines have been swirling around of the rising tension between Sorrell and WPP lawyers being brought in by WPP to warn Sorrell that he was likely to be breaching his confidentiality agreement. Ultimately this could lead to Sorrell losing shares worth millions of pounds.
The move comes one month after Sorrell, WPP’s former CEO, said that S4 Capital (then Derriston Capital) “will not compete directly” with WPP, following his comeback into the industry. According to an exclusive interview with Reuters, WPP’s spokesperson said that Sorrell has spoken to two of its shareholders including fundmanager at Jupiter Asset Management Alastair Gunn, who was assured by Sorrell that his new venture “will not undermine” the advertising network. Sorrell added at the time that he “would not seek to hurt” the company he started 33 years back.
Previously, Sorrell described his departure as being “extracted” from the network and that he is “not going into voluntary or involuntary retirement”. He also added that he now has a “better perspective” on where the strengths and weaknesses of traditional advertising companies lie, now that he has left WPP.
