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Martin Sorrell's exit from the Ad industry sets off questions about future

Sorrell's exit would have been a big deal at any point, but the manner of his departure has amplified the attention

Martin Sorrell, who recently resigned as the head of WPP, helped create the era of conglomerate-building that has defined the advertising industry for the past three decades.
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Martin Sorrell, who recently resigned as the head of WPP, helped create the era of conglomerate-building that has defined the advertising industry for the past three decades.

Sapna Maheshwari | NYT
It came as a shock to Madison Avenue in the late 1980s when a British financial whiz named Martin Sorrell came for two pre-eminent American advertising agencies, embarking on hostile takeovers of J Walter Thompson and the Ogilvy Group on his way to forging a global empire.

Almost three decades later, Sorrell was again at the centre of another earthshaking moment for the industry. A little over a week ago, WPP announced that Sorrell had abruptly resigned as chief executive, a position that, he told Ken Auletta of The New Yorker last year, he intended to keep “until they shoot me.”

Sorrell’s