Sorrell buys Silicon Valley's Firewood in pursuit of digital growth

British businessman Martin Sorrell has acquired Silicon Valley’s biggest independent agency, Firewood, for $150 million in its latest deal to form a purely digital global advertising firm. The world's best-realized advertising manager is working up the new pursuit following his takeoff from ad giant WPP. He is now focused on taking care of business for digital content that keeps running on platforms like Facebook and Google, and the mechanized setting of advertisements on the web.

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S4 will access Firewood's customer base in the United States

Sorrell said the digital growth was rapid and his focus on it meant he was currently involved in five large pitches. S4 will access Firewood's customer base in the United States, including Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Salesforce and VMware. S4 raised 100 million pounds ($123 million) through a set to part-fund the Firewood contract and to develop a reserve for future acquisitions.
As opposed to recreating WPP, the world's biggest advertising organization he made with a holding organization model, Sorrell is purchasing smaller agencies. He plans to combine them into one arm that produces content and one arm that takes care of the programmatic placing of ads. He said he does not want to end up with a fragmented model.

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Two small deals approaching for data analytics companies

Sorrell revealed to a news agency that he is as hoping to obtain organizations that possess first-party information on buyer propensities. However, he said he had two small deals approaching for data analytics companies, with one in London and the other in Korea. S4 has already worked with companies like Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Sprint and had said it was being asked to bid for other major clients. According to the industry data released on Monday showed the U.S. advertising market remained solid, helped by small-and medium-scaled companies spending on digital platforms to reach customers.

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(with inputs from agencies)