Web-based TV creative ad agency Spot Runner is being sued by WPP Group for securities fraud and breach of contract, AdAge reports. WPP, which helped lead a $40 million funding in the Los Angeles company about three years ago, is accusing the Spot Runner of failing to disclose a stock…

Between the late ‘90s and early 2000s, ad-holding companies began setting up clearer operating lines for their agencies: some would concentrate on creative and others would focus on media buying—and never the twain shall meet. But as digital has been added to the mix, the lines are blurring. A WSJ…

While the sputtering economy has slowed M&A activity considerably the last few months, WPP Group apparently didn’t get the memo that now’s the time to retrench and wait. Actually, Sheila Spence, SVP in WPP’s corporate development, told attendees at the DeSilva + Phillps Dealmakers Summit that she’s gotten a very…

In addition to investing $25 million in Seattle web analytics firm Omniture this week, WPP Group CEO Sir Martin Sorrell also took time out at the World Economic Forum in Davos to announce that the UK ad holding company has taken a 49 percent stake in The Jupiter Drawing Room.…

WPP Group has made a $25 million investment in web analytics firm Omniture as the two plan are putting together a marketing consultancy. The move represents the direction WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell has charted since buying audience researcher TNS Media Intelligence this past fall. As Sir Martin told me…

Ad holding company WPP Group is beginning the new year with preparations to lay off of thousands at its global agencies, Guardian reported. The decision was made during budget meetings held during the last two months. The units that have staffing costs greater than 60 percent of revenue. But the…

UK ad-holding company WPP Group, fresh off its takeover of audience researcher TNS, has sold its 50 percent stake in TV researcher AGB Nielsen Media Research to Nielsen. In return, Nielsen will transfer to WPP the assets of ad-pricing researcher SRDS and health-care media-planning data unit PERQ/HCI. Nielsen will also…

WPP Group says it’s ready to close the deal for its $2 billion (£1.14 billion) takeover of TNS Media Intelligence, having received the support of 82 percent of the audience researcher’s shareholders, Reuters reports. The is now unconditional, though the extended offer period for further acceptances is open until Oct.…

After months of repeatedly rebuffing WPP Group’s $2 billion (£1.14 billion) takeover bid, media measurement firm TNS is now telling its shareholders to approve the deal, Reuters reports. WPP made the offer back in July, two months after TNS and its German rival, media audience monitor GfK, announced plans to…

WPP Digital has acquired a minority stake in online analytics provider Proclivity Systems, Brand Republic reported. The New York-based firm looks at consumers’ e-commerce habits, which is used by its clients to target merchandise and marketing efforts. WPP Digital, the investment arm of the ad holding company, followed Fung Capital…

Microsoft’s talks with WPP Group seem to be taking a more serious turn on the subject of the software giant selling off digital ad shop, Avenue A/Razorfish, AdAge reports. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) acquired Avenue A/Razorfish when it bought parent aQuantive last August for about $6 billion. That purchase also included…

WPP Group continues its steady pace of digital purchases in growing markets today by taking a majority stake in Russian interactive agency Alite Ltd. The company trades as Actis and will be folded into WPP’s Wunderman network. The 11-year-old Moscow-based shop employs around 120 staffers. Actis provides strategy, design, development…

Perhaps the title of the Cannes International Advertising Festival panel—“From Metrics to Brand: Online’s Next Challenge”—was deliberately bland. But the chance to see the outspoken WPP Group’s CEO Sir Martin Sorrell moderate a panel with Hillary Schneider, EVP of Yahoo’s (NSDQ: YHOO) global partner solutions division, Kevin Johnson, president of…

We missed this one last week: WPP, the online ad giant, has invested in Yield Software, a new online media buying and marketing software system…the $1.8 million WPP investment was part of a $6 million second round, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and included WPP. The San Mateo, CA-based company’s…

Although WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell used the term “frenemy” to describe Google’s (NSDQ: GOOG) relationship to the ad industry, to a lesser degree the the word was often applied to Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) as well, as it too was viewed as encroaching on agency territory with every interactive marketing…

Consoling each other at acquisition travails and an overly-dominant Google (NSDQ: GOOG) respectively, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and WPP are trumpeting a partnership that will see the ad firm place its agency clients’ messages in to the portal’s Right Media Exchange network. WPP’s 24/7 Real Media will develop “a proprietary media…

The world’s going crazy with 10-K’s…and we’re making it easy for you. Our motto, just in case you didn’t know: We kill ourselves, so you don’t have to. Some of the main ones below with some relevant points culled out: —Getty (NYSE: GYI) Images: The images company is in the…

Ad holding company WPP Group posted higher 2007 earnings, as net income rose 6.9 percent to 465.9 million pounds ($925.8 million)  from 435.8 million pounds the year before. Revenues came in at £6.1 billion ($12.2 billion), up about 3.4 percent from 2006’s £5.9 billion. Also, WPP’s billings were up 5.1…

WPP Group’s digital investment arm has bought an unspecified stake in web-analytics company NuConomy, according to Thomson Financial. The amount was not disclosed. NuConomy, an Israeli startup with offices in San Francisco, is currently in beta. It’s currently working on techniques designed to measure engagement with online ads.  WPP positioned…