WPP plc

WPP plc

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: WPP NASDAQ: WPPGY
Industry	Communications services
Founded	1985
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom (Head office) Dublin, Republic of Ireland (Executive office)
Key people	Philip Lader (Chairman) Martin Sorrell (Founder and CEO)
Products	Advertising Branding & identity Consumer insights Design Digital Marketing Market research Media planning and buying Public relations Relationship marketing
Revenue	£9.3 billion (2010)[1]
Operating income	£1,228.7 million (2010)[1]
Net income	£730.8 million (2010)[2]
Employees	153,000 (2011)[3]
Subsidiaries	Grey Global Group Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Young & Rubicam JWT Hill & Knowlton Strategies Burson-Marsteller GroupM Cohn & Wolfe
Website	www.wpp.com

WPP plc (LSE: WPP, NASDAQ: WPPGY) is a global media communications services company with its main management office in London, United Kingdom and its executive office in Dublin, Ireland.^[4] It is the world's largest advertising group by revenues, and employs over 150,000 people^[5] in 2,400 offices in 107 countries.^[3][6] It owns a number of advertising, public relations and market research networks, including Grey, Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton Strategies, JWT, Ogilvy Group, TNS and Young & Rubicam.^[3] The company is well known for going to great lengths to lower its own corporate tax bill, paying only 1.6% of total revenue in taxes in 2010.^[7]

Its primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange and it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on NASDAQ.

Contents 1 History 2 Governance 3 Operations 3.1 Industrial division 3.2 Subsidiaries 4 References 5 External links

History

Wire and Plastic Products plc was founded in 1971 as a manufacturer of wire shopping baskets. In 1985 Martin Sorrell, searching for a listed company through which to build a worldwide marketing services company, bought a controlling stake of just under 30% at a cost of $676,000.^[8] Sorrell had been the financial director for the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi from 1977 to 1985, managing its takeovers of companies in the US and the UK. The holding company was renamed WPP Group and in 1987 Sorrell became its chief executive.^[8]

In 1987 the company acquired J. Walter Thompson (including JWT, Hill & Knowlton Strategies and MRB Group) for $566m.^[8] The company was first listed on NASDAQ in 1988.^[8] In 1989 it acquired Ogilvy Group for $864m^[8] and in 1998 formed an alliance with Asatsu-DK Inc. of Japan.^[8] In 2007 WPP Digital was created to develop the Group's digital capabilities. In October 2008, the company acquired market research firm TNS for £1.6 billion.^[9]

Governance

The company is governed by a board of directors, whose current members include Colin Day, Esther Dyson, Orit Gadiesh, Ruigan Li, Philip Lader, Stanley Morten, Kōichirō Naganuma, Lubna Olayan, John Quelch, Mark Read, Paul Richardson, Jeffrey Rosen, Timothy Shriver, Martin Sorrell, Paul Spencer and Solomon Trujillo.[1]

Operations

WPP's advertising agency company holdings include the Grey Group, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Young & Rubicam Brands, and JWT (formerly known as J. Walter Thompson Co.).

WPP's government lobbying and public relations company holdings including Hill & Knowlton Strategies, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Burson-Marsteller, and Cohn & Wolfe (the last two being part of Young & Rubicam Brands)

WPP's media investment management company holdings are operated by GroupM and include Mindshare, MEC (formerly Mediaedge:cia, Maxus and MediaCom (originally part of Grey Group).

WPP's research insight and consulting companies, forming a separate umbrella group known as Kantar, comprise BMRB, Added Value, Kantar Video, Indian Market Research Bureau, Millward Brown, Management Ventures Inc., Research International and TNS.

Industrial division

During 1986 WPP became the parent company of Picquotware, a manufacturer of teapots and jugs, based in Northampton. In November 1987 a fire destroyed the Northampton factory and production was restarted at Burntwood in Staffordshire. On 25 November 2004 WPP closed the Burntwood factory and stopped manufacturing Picquotware: all assets were sold on 14 December 2004.^[10]

Delfinware Domestic Wireware, established in 1963 and manufacturing kitchen and bathroom wire racks, is also a subsidiary of WPP Group.^[11]

Subsidiaries

This is a list of WPP-related companies:

9ine 10AM Communications 141 Premiere Sports & Entertainment 141 Sercon 1861 United 20:20 Brand Action 24/7 Real Media Ace Metrix A. Eicoff & Company Actionline Added Value Addison Corporate Marketing Ad People Adgistics AGENDA all access ltd All Global All Global Viewing Alliance Alpha Salmon Always Marketing APP (Agência Portuguesa de Produção) Aqua Online argonauten G2 Asatsu-DK Inc. Atlas Advertising avh live communications AxiCom Limited B to D Group Banner Corporation Bates 141 BCG2 BDG McColl BDGworkfutures Berlin Cameron United Beyond Communications Hong Kong Limited Big Idea Group Bisqit Blanc & Otus Blast Radius Blaze Advertising Blue Hive Blue State Digital BMRB BPG Group BPRI BrandAmp BrandAsset Consulting BrandBuzz Bravo Group Brierley+Partners bsb comunicacion BTS United Buchanan Communications Burrows Burson-Marsteller BWR (An Ogilvy PR Worldwide Company) Catalyst Search Marketing CAW Marketing CB'a Center Partners Cheskin CHI & Partners Chime Communications Plc. Clarion Communications Clockwork Capital Cohn & Wolfe Cole & Weber United Coley Porter Bell Commarco Communicator Compas Compete, Inc. Comwerks Contract Advertising Cymfony Data Intelligence Dawson DCSNET Deliver Dentsu, Young & Rubicam (DY&R) Designkitchen Designworks Dewey Square Group, LLC

Dialogue 141 Diamond Ogilvy Diebitz, Stöppler, Braun & Kuhlmann (DSB&K) Digit Digitaria Direct Impact Dovetail Dynamic Logic eCommera ETECTURE GmbH Encompass Events Pvt Ltd Encoder Public Relations Enfatico Essence Communications Etcom Everystone Group EWA Bespoke Communications F.biz Fabric facts+fiction Feinstein Kean Healthcare (FKH) Finsbury Firefly Fitch Focalyst Food Group Forward Futurecom interactive G2 G2 Australia G2 Data Dynamics G2 Market Data GCI Canada GCI Health George Patterson, Y&R Geppetto Group Glass global3digital Global Market Insite, Inc Grass Roots Grey Grey Group ghg (Grey Healthcare) GMI GroupM H-art Happi Mindshare Headcount Field Marketing Limited HeathWallace Ltd. HERING SCHUPPENER HighCo Hill & Knowlton Strategies Hogarth Worldwide HS Ad I-Behavior, Inc i-Cherry IBOPE Media Information iconmobile group IdeaWorks IEG, LLC imap Research impactasia IMRB International INGO Invidi Intermarkets IPAN Hill and Knowlton Ireland/Davenport Jan Kelley Marketing Japan Kantar Research JayGrey Johannes Leonardo JumpTap JWT JWT Action JWT Education JWT Inside JWT Specialized Communications Kang & Lee Advertising Kantar Group Kantar Health Kantar Media Kantar Operations Kantar Retail Kantar Video Kantar WorldPanel Kassius

Kendall Strategies Inc. KBM Group Kinetic Worldwide KMR Software KR Media LaComunidad La Negra Lambie-Nairn Landor Associates LDV United Les Ouvriers du Paradis United Lightspeed Research LiveWorld-WPP LMRB LOb Conseils Lumi Technologies M80 Malone Advertising Management Ventures Inc. Mando. Marsteller Master Comunicacao Mather Advertures Mattson Jack Group MAXUS Maxx Marketing MEC MEC Access MEC Interaction MediaCom MediaCom Interaction Media Innovation Group Mediapro Group Menacom Meritus Analytics Metro Broadcast Metropolitan Republic Midia Digital Millward Brown Mindset MindShare mInteraction MJM MONDAY Motivator Neo'@'Ogilvy Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide OgilvyAction Ogilvy Government Relations Ogilvy Andina Ogilvy CommonHealth Ogilvy Healthworld Ogilvy Noor Ogilvy Primary Contact Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide OgilvyOne Worldwide ohal oOh!media Outrider PACE Panache Peclers Paris Penn Schoen & Berland Associates Plush Films Polaris Public Relations Possible Worldwide PPR PQ Plakat Qualitaet Prime Policy Group (PPG) PRISM Proclivity Pro Deo Proof Digital Media Proof Integrated Communications Public Strategies Inc Quinn Gillespie & Associates Quisma Quasar Ray and Keshavan Red Cell Reddion Red Dot Square Solutions RedWorks RMG Connect Robinson Lerer & Montgomery Rockfish Interactive RPCA RTC Relationship Marketing (RTCRM) Santo

SAY Media Scangroup Scholz & Friends Group SCPF Señora Rushmore Sharp Shooter Films Signposter.com Smollan Group SocialMedia8 Soho Square Sonic Boom Creative Media Spafax Spot Runner Spring Spring Wirtz und Pischke GmbH & Co. KG Sprint Production SRA Rushmore United SRDS Studiocom Sudler & Hennessey swat marketing Syzygy TAM Media Research TAPSA tattoo (Dubai) TAXI Team Detroit Teledirect Testardo Gram The Brand Shop The Brand Union The Bravo Group the campaign palace The Farm The Focus Network The Futures Company The Glover Park Group The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners The Media Innovation Group (MIG) The Midas Exchange The Partners The PBN Company These Days The Social Partners The Store The United Network TNS ThorntonTechnology TNS-RMS TNS Employee Insights TNS Gallup TNS Infratest TNS OBOP TNS Research International Triwaks Public Relations Consultants TRU True Worldwide UniWorld Group VBAT ViralTracker Visible Technologies Visible World VML, Inc. Warwicks Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates WG Consulting Who Digital Wild Tangent Wing Wire and Plastic Products Ltd WPP Group Technology Services WTMS Wunderman Wunderman MENA Xaxis Xchange XM Asia Pacific XM London XPR Yield Software Yolk Y&R(originally Young & Rubicam) Young & Rubicam Brands Young & Rubicam Brands Geneva ZAAZ

References

External links

• WPP official website

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