Stagwell Group, the advertising agency holding group operated by Mark Penn, a former advisor to Bill and Hillary Clinton, is actively looking to buy adtech companies as it continues to grow through acquisitions.
Penn's theory is that by bringing such adtech in-house, Stagwell can offer more self-service software to advertisers who want it while also shrinking those clients' ad prices and expanding its own margins.
Challenger brand Stagwell is competing for bigger contractsPenn founded Stagwell Group in 2015 with $250 million in funding from investors, including former Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.
Stagwell recently made a near-$700-million bid for S4 Capital, another challenger ad company founded by longtime WPP CEO Martin Sorrell, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Publicis Groupe has the biggest market capitalization of the largest holding companies, at $28.2 billion, while Stagwell is trading at around $1.6 billion.
Persons:
Mark Penn, Bill, Hillary Clinton, Penn, we're, Stagwell, Penn didn't, Ana Milicevic, Milicevic, Brian Wieser, Wieser, Steve Ballmer, Sunny, GALE, Allison, Martin Sorrell, they're
Organizations:
Stagwell, Penn, Business, Google, Harris Poll, Next Partners, Sparrow, Madison, Challenger, Stagwell Group, Microsoft, MDC Partners, WPP, Publicis Groupe, Veritas, S4 Capital, Street Journal, S4, EMEA
Locations:
adtech, London