WPP Resumes Buying of comScore Stock

Marcomms giant WPP has resumed its buying of comScore stock, with the purchase of a further 120,000 at c.$26 apiece last week. The measurement firm's share price has dropped by a third since January this year.

DRNO last reported on WPP's purchasing of comScore stock in January, after several purchases of a similar number of shares - at the time, however, these were trading at between $38 and $39. Since then, the stock has been hit by news of an ongoing internal accounting investigation. Since this was first revealed in March, the stock price has been volatile although today's value is little changed from the $26.52 it hit on 7th of that month.

In other respects life continues as before for comScore. The Rentrak business acquired at the end of last year, and in which WPP owned a 16.7% share, is being integrated, and the firm has continued to deepen its collaboration with Kantar, first announced in February 2015 when Kantar took a 15-20% stake in comScore. In April and May, the firm's flagship validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) tool received further accreditation boosts from the US' MRC and the UK's ABC. Meanwhile Magid Abraham has recently resigned as Executive Chairman of the Board, but his co-founder Gian Fulgoni (pictured) has subsequently moved into the CEO role.

Today's news suggests that although the protracted nature of the accounting enquiry is evidently making many investors very nervous, WPP still sees advantage in strengthening the already considerable ties between the two firms.

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