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A dark quip is making the rounds in the ad industry that a UK-based manufacturer purchased four decades ago as a vehicle to construct a worldwide marketing powerhouse might outlast the conglomerate it created.

For decades, the financial success of WPP – with its one hundred thousand employees catering to international brands from Ford to beverage leaders – stood as the business manifestation of Britain's stellar reputation for creative advertising.

WPP has been home to some of the most renowned agency networks, producing world-famous campaigns such as Dove's Real Beauty, which disrupted stereotypical portrayals of women.

Among WPP's greatest hits are the unlikely pairing of a punk rock icon with a dairy brand, and decades of work for Coca-Cola, including the brilliant idea to replace its logo on bottles with personal names – a global phenomenon still in stores twelve years later.

But now, as WPP battles to stem a growing exodus of clients worth billions of pounds and address an critical competition to match the AI and data capabilities of rivals, there is previously unimaginable talk of a breakup.

"WPP dominated the world at one point, it was like the British empire," commented one marketing leader. "It was symbolic of UK success and the country's status as the global home for advertising."

Era Ends on Leadership Tenure

In August, a profit warning and dire forecast of revenue decline for this year sent WPP's shares plummeting to their lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis, marking the end of a challenging seven-year period as chief executive.

A stock market value of just £4 billion – compared with its £25 billion valuation eight years ago, when WPP was the world's largest marketing services company – has left the business at risk of being removed from the FTSE 100 index it joined almost three decades ago.

"One more earnings alert could force its exit and WPP is facing challenges," said one media analyst. "The situation WPP finds itself in now is almost unthinkable. WPP is highly exposed, it is possibly facing a takeover or breakup."

For WPP's board, the final straw came when a significant customer informed the company that it was losing its $1.7 billion global business. The chief executive resigned that Monday morning.

Strategic Shifts and Brand Consolidation

The former leader's strategy was to simplify a sprawling operation to create – or give the appearance of creating – a group suited for an AI future. The move saw the disappearance of some of the most renowned names in advertising.

"It was a bashing and crashing of names that were linked to 'traditional' advertising, it was a chaos," said a ex-executive from a WPP agency. "He killed off the brands. Clients certainly didn't understand why treasured trophies had to go."

Others argue that the departed leader has laid the groundwork for a turnaround and that WPP's fall was already apparent under the founder. Its market value fell substantially over the founder's last year in charge.

WPP has been investing £300 million annually in AI tools to enable it to make ads cheaper and faster and has 70,000 employees using its tech platform.

However, concerns are increasing among the rank and file over job cuts with AI poised to take over large portions of the company's creative, media and data processes.

"The place where the anxiety is most present is lower down, in entry-level positions where you come in and learn the business," said one staffer. "Routine tasks, data, consumer insight: AI can generate you a market analysis with creative included in it and market segmentation in 2.5 minutes. That would have been two weeks work for several graduate-level people."

Intense Rivalry

In the ad market, WPP is being significantly outperformed – principally by a French competitor, which took its crown as the biggest ad group in the world by revenue last year.

The French rival has seen its share price increase almost 200% in five years, giving a market value of €21 billion. It is led by a seemingly indefatigable leader who is described by more than one industry executive as reminding them of "previous leadership in his prime."

US-based rivals have each seen their shares appreciate just more than 50% over the same period, with substantial market capitalisations.

Fresh Management and Turnaround Efforts

WPP has asked a former tech executive to engineer a turnaround.

Earlier this month, she unveiled a five-year $400 million partnership with a tech giant to embed AI products into WPP's technology platform.

The new CEO, who has also worked at leading telecommunications firms, is said by insiders to have been "customer-focused" in constant meetings in New York and London.

"She is not here to sugarcoat the situation," said a source who has spent time with the new CEO since she took over. "She is very clear-eyed about the challenges and is determined to move fast to reverse the decline."

Given the state of WPP's business, analysts believe she may have only a year to save it. The previous CEO sold off assets including a market research group and used the proceeds to help pay down debt.

However, lower operating profits – down 35% year-on-year in the first half of 2025 – raise doubts about WPP's "debt servicing capability" – a measure of a company's ability to pay down debt. Of more fundamental concern is an operating margin that fell from 11.5% in the first half of last year to 8.2% in the first six months of 2025. By comparison, the figure for its main competitor is just more than 18%.

"I cannot ever remember margins being anywhere near as low as that," said one analyst. "It is alarming really. With the new CEO they have gone for the Silicon Valley touch. She will be given a year to work out whether there is a tech turnaround story here, if not the board will mandate her to break WPP up."

Investment Interest and Future Prospects

Despite the significant challenges on WPP, there are signs that investors believe the business may have reached bottom and be set to recover.

WPP Media, which manages more than $60 billion in global media investment in campaigns for clients, has always been the revenue and profit driver for the company. WPP Media on its own is worth more than the approximate £7.5 billion enterprise value of WPP, which includes its debt.

A number of investment funds have increased their position in WPP, sensing a opportunity as change looms under new leadership, but the question is whether the ad giant can convince clients and investors quickly enough.

"Investors are wary of being on the wrong side of AI," said one financial source. "It is the biggest theme in markets globally. It feels as though WPP is on the wrong side of that trade at the moment.

"Advertising clients are fickle, there is a contagion to winning and losing. The worry is that the decline is inevitable. But change comes when you are on the brink of disaster. I would never count WPP out."