Dubai: WPP, the world's largest communications services group, is in negotiations to take over the Middle East-based communications company Memac Ogilvy & Mather Holding.
Wire and Plastic Products Plc (WPP), a UK manufacturer of wire baskets, later became a worldwide marketing services company.
"We're at a very advanced stage of discussions," said Miles Young, chief executive officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide — a subsidiary of WPP, during a media roundtable held in Dubai yesterday. "If Ogilvy wants to buy, I want to sell," said Edmond Moutran, chairman and chief executive officer of Memac Ogilvy & Mather Holding for the Middle East and North Africa, at the roundtable.
"If it weren't for the world economy, the deal would have been done by now," he said.
Memac Ogilvy & Mather Holding started operations in Bahrain in 1984. In 1989, WPP acquired The Ogilvy Group for $864 million (Dh3.17 billion), including Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Ogilvy Direct and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Today it owns a 40 per cent stake in Memac Ogilvy & Mather.
