WPP Buys Public Affairs Specialist

WPP is to acquire US firm The Glover Park Group, which advises on public and government affairs, digital and other advertising and brand strategy, and conducts opinion research.

The Washington, DC-based firm was founded in 2001 and has around 140 employees, with offices in New York, LA and Boulder, Colorado. Recently, it has been in the news as the company brought in to help Rupert Murdoch's News Corp with the fall-out from the UK phone-hacking scandal.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and terms were not disclosed, although it is said to have annual revenues of about $60m and reports suggest the price could be around three quarters of that.

Founded in 2001 by four Democrat strategists, Carter Eskew, Mike Feldman, Chip Smith and Bill Clinton's former press secretary Joe Lockhart, who in June this year became Facebook's new VP of Communications. The Group now has a number of Republican strategists on board also.

WPP will add the firm to a strong stable of PR brands including Hill & Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller, Ogilvy PR, and Cohn & Wolfe.

Web sites: www.wpp.com and www.gloverparkgroup.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.