Big ad spenders object to Granada/Carlton merger 14 Apr 2003 Protests against the UK's governmentencouraged TV merger turn out to be led by the government's own adbuying agency. Happily, an independent regulator will sort the conflict of interest out although its rumoured scheme for doing so looks pretty wacky.
ITV pay rows bode ill for merger 28 Mar 2003 Shareholders are upset about directors' pay at both Carlton and Granada. But their merger brings a chance to start afresh, so why bother? What matters is whether a merged boardroom will work better than the existing ITV partnership. The signs are not encouraging.
WPP expects corrugated recovery 24 Feb 2003 The advertising bellwether isn't expecting much joy in its markets until 2004. Meanwhile, it is pulling out all the stops to keep investors happy with a strategy that still devotes most of their cash to acquisitions.
WPP raises double-dip fears 24 Oct 2002 Times are hard for the marketing giant. Despite new business wins, margins and cash generation are shrinking, and debt is on the way up. Chief executive Martin Sorrell has been a highprofile bear on the ad industry. So far as his own stock goes, that was good positioning.