WPP buys US tech company Fenom Digital – is it time it broadened its horizons?

WPP has purchased US-based Fenom Digital which describes itself as a purveyor of “transformative digital options for the age of human interactions.” Ecommerce in different phrases.

Fenom was based in The big apple by Dylan Runne three years in the past and now employs 190 individuals (not dangerous going) working for purchasers together with Basset Furnishings, Casper, Crocs, David Yurman, GNC, PacSun and Snipes. It really works primarily by way of the Salesforce platform and can be rolled into ever-expanding Wunderman Thompson, WPP’s (primarily) tech arm.

WPP CEO Mark Learn says: “Increasing our enterprise in high-growth commerce areas continues to be a excessive precedence for WPP as we enter 2023. The Fenom workforce brings a confirmed observe document of success paired with deep business experience and I’m delighted to welcome them to WPP.”

From a enterprise viewpoint this likely is sensible though it’s hardly one to set the. pulses racing. WPP has an issue in that it appears to be constantly undervalued by traders, in accordance with some analysts at the least. It’s presently valued at round £9bn, in comparison with a peak of round £16bn a decade in the past.

Its give attention to tech, whereas likely good enterprise, most likely doesn’t assist for the time being as tech shares have tanked spectacularly over the previous yr. They might not all be as mad as Meta/Fb however the mud sticks.

WPP was constructed on first, huge inventive company acquisitions – JWT, Ogilvy, Y&R and Gray – after which a raft of media businesses. There aren’t any of this scale nonetheless to purchase even when WPP was so inclined however WPP may so with an attractive acquisition or two. In any other case there’ll be a rising notion that it’s a tech companies enterprise primarily, plenty of it in Wunderman Thompson. In such circumstances traders are inclined to assume: break-up.