FILE PHOTO – BSkyB Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch speaks at the CBI annual conference in London November 19, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
April 19, 2018
LONDON (Reuters) – Sky <SKYB.L> Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said he had no interest in running WPP <WPP.L>, the world’s biggest ad group which is searching for a new chief executive after the abrupt departure of Martin Sorrell on Saturday.
Whoever is named as Sorrell’s successor will inherit a difficult task, with WPP publishing its weakest results since the financial crisis in March and analysts speculating that the group could be broken up without Sorrell at its helm.
A WPP insider suggested that Sorrell’s departure could represent a new beginning for the company, saying he was sad that Sorrell was leaving but there was “a mood of change”.
“I think some people might feel a bit liberated,” Stephen Allan, CEO of MediaCom, which is part of WPP, told the BBC.
Deciding WPP’s future is not a job Sky’s Darroch wants. He had been suggested as a possible candidate by industry insiders.
“I have no interest in running WPP, thank you very much,” he said on Thursday after the pay-TV group reported its third-quarter results.
“Good luck to them in their change. I wish them well, but I am very happy just focusing on Sky.”
Sky, one of Britain’s biggest advertisers, reappointed WPP’s MediaCom as its media buying and planning agency earlier this month.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; additional reporting by Sarah Young, editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
