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GfK Keeps Industry Waiting and Guessing
GfK will use the time available to it before making any offer for TNS, according to CEO Klaus Wuebbenhorst. This is likely to mean September, while WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell will see TNS shareholders vote on his proposals on 29th August.
Interim results for WPP to June 30th are set to be announced this Friday, with analysts predicting a 'downbeat outlook' from Sorrell, due to world economic conditions and despite the temporary factors he says are boosting ad spend in 2008 (the Olympics and the US election being the two highest profile). WPP reported healthy results in June.
While the Diary section of the UK's Telegraph newspaper reports that 'TNS has already filed trademarks for its new married name - 'GfK-TNS GLOBAL' and 'GfK-TNS' ... and nothing so far for WPP-TNS', sources in the City of London report that the German firm may be struggling to find sufficient funds.
Prof. Wuebbenhorst told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung this weekend that talks were continuing in a positive vein but said 'We have until September to present a friendly offer. We will use this time'. He added that his firm could look at other acquisitions as an alternative route to realising its ambition of becoming the world's third largest research agency.
Web sites: www.tnsglobal.com , www.gfk.com and www.wpp.com .
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