The UK advertising holding firm has expressed an initial interest in acquiring Grey, but has not made any formal move, according to a Wall Street Journal report, since Grey hired investment banks JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to explore its strategic options, which could result in the firm being sold as 77-year-old chairman, Ed Meyer, looks to retire.
If WPP bought Grey, its advertising agency, Grey Worldwide, would join J Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam.
Key to any deal will be P&G, which is a major client of Grey Global. Any potential suitor looking to buy the ad holding firm would have to get the OK from the consumer products giant.
P&G rival Unilever is a major client of WPP and is a possible source of client conflict. However, as the agency holding company world continues to get smaller, client attitudes to such conflict are changing also.
One motivation for P&G is that it is not understood to be happy about the idea of so much of its advertising being with one firm and is reported to have made this clear to Grey and Publicis Groupe of France, which is seen as the other major contender for Grey. Like Grey, it has major client relationships with P&G.
Although it is early days, the possible battle for Grey is shaping up to be a two-horse race between WPP and Publicis. None of the other ad holding companies are interested or in a good position to buy Grey.
Last week, Omnicom indicated that it was unlikely to bid for the group and Interpublic Group has financial worries of its own to contend with.
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