Warren Buffett was keen on buying ad giant WPP, reveals Martin Sorrell
Advertising giant WPP could have been sold to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, it emerged today.
Its ousted former chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell told a Campaign magazine event in London that a deal was discussed in 2012, but no price was agreed.
Sorrell said Buffett “was really interested in WPP becoming part of Berkshire”.
He added: “We had a brief conversation and he’s very shrewd. He cuts to the quick. He’s very fixed in terms of price and the premium he offered was not sufficient.
“It was about 15%, maybe a little bit more. The average premium was 30%, and we couldn’t encourage him to go to 30. I would’ve loved to have done that if it had been at the right price.”
According to Sir Martin, now building his own digital-based agency, Buffett offered 925p a share for WPP, higher than the present share price.
In a dig at WPP, he said: “The best form of revenge would be building a significant and successful new-era, new-format, new-approach agency,” after criticising WPP’s handling of his misconduct probe.
