WPP leaks without realizing – they wanted to buy AOL
July 21, 2008
Below is the worst advice I have ever heard… WPP or Interpublic buying AOL … these companies don’t even acknowledge the internet exists for the most part.. a firm like that buying AOL would just make AOL even less popular as none of the holding companies have a clear vision of what people want online. to make is worse… WPP actually considered and ran the numbers to see if they could purchase it…
“Arithmetically, we can’t support the valuation they put on it on any reasonable analysis,” said WPP’s Maerov, who is based in New York.
Huh? How did they reach that conclusion unless they actively wanted to purchase it? The literally spent time running the numbers to see if they could own AOL…
“It’s a bad nightmare that everyone would like to forget,” Brimhall said of the failed AOL-Time Warner merger. He added it is unlikely AOL will be bought by either Microsoft or Yahoo! Inc. It’s more probable that a non-software company, such as an advertising agency, will acquire it to gain control of an Internet company, Brimhall said. Full Story
I could picture the pitch now:
WPP : Guess what… you got mail!!! Now we can even plaster the ads we made for you on AOL!
Dell: WOW!! where do I sign!
WPP: We’ll even include our ads for you on the next CD we mail out.
Sounds incredible? Watch WPP or one of the holding companies make a bid for AOL if the price drops more since someone published an article in Bloomberg telling them to do that… If that happens… mark my words… it would explain to the world where their strategy is located…
Poisoned Dwarf : I read it somewhere that I need to buy AOL to make the internet work… someone draft up an offer. We could sell our clients more crap!
Evidently … that was the case…
Also the article notes that several ad agencies made some effort into the potential purchase of AOL as well. How else did they come to the conclusion that it was too expensive unless they spent some time researching and working the numbers to see if it makes sense.
Out of that whole list below.. the only one that would even make partial sense is IAC .. and trust me.. that’s a small ‘p’ for partial.
Philippe Krakowsky, an executive vice president for strategy at ad company Interpublic Group of Cos.; Lance Maerov, a senior vice president at WPP Group Plc; and Rich Stalzer, president of IAC/InterActiveCorp.’s advertising solutions group, said they aren’t interested in buying AOL’s ad businesses
BTW : Thanks to George Parker for coining the term Poisoned Dwarf …. we’re going to adopt that term… as the more we follow this guy.. the more we believe in Parker’s view of him. Also worth noting that Agency Spy is covering the story as well.
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