WPP Revenues Drop 5.8%, Shares Hit Low Amid Strategic Review & CEO Change
WPP, the global advertising behemoth, saw its shares plummet by nearly 5% on Thursday morning, reaching a 16-year low. This sharp decline followed the announcement of another set of disappointing financial results, coupled with news that incoming chief executive Cindy Rose will immediately launch a comprehensive strategic review of the company’s direction. The market’s reaction underscored the deep challenges facing the beleaguered holding company, which owns an expansive portfolio of agencies including Ogilvy and VML.
The latest figures painted a stark picture of WPP’s financial health. For the first half of 2025, revenue less pass-through costs – a key metric reflecting the company’s net revenue after client-specific expenses – declined by 4.3%, totaling $6.7 billion (£5.03 billion). The second quarter alone saw an even steeper drop of 5.8% in this core revenue, bringing it down to $3.3 billion (£2.5 billion). Perhaps most concerning was the precipitous 47.8% fall in operating profit for the first half of the year, which shrank to $295.5 million (£221 million). In response to these pressures, the company also announced a halving of its dividend, a clear signal of the challenging economic climate and its impact on the advertising industry.
These results mark the final earnings report under outgoing CEO Mark Read, who is set to be succeeded by Rose, a former Microsoft executive, on September 1. During his tenure, WPP has grappled with a series of significant headwinds. The company confirmed it had implemented aggressive cost-cutting measures throughout the period, including a reduction of its global workforce by 7,000, bringing the total headcount from 111,000 to 104,000 over the past year. Further austerity measures saw staff incentives slashed by a substantial 60% to $78.8 million (£59 million), alongside a 13% decrease in its freelancer budget. Beyond these internal adjustments, WPP has faced high-profile client losses, notably from major brands like Mars, alongside ongoing restructuring efforts and a widely reported rocky rollout of its return-to-office mandate, all contributing to a period of instability.
Despite the challenging backdrop, Mark Read, reflecting on his seven years at the helm, maintained that WPP had made “significant progress” in several key areas. He highlighted the repositioning of WPP Media, its recently rebranded media agency arm, as well as efforts to simplify the organization’s structure and reduce operational costs. Read also pointed to strategic investments aimed at future-proofing the business, including the acquisition of data collaboration platform InfoSum to bolster its AI and data capabilities, and ongoing investments in artificial intelligence through proprietary platforms like WPP Open.
In his parting remarks, Read expressed confidence in the company’s foundational strengths, emphasizing its “enormous strengths in creativity and media, technology and AI, talented people, deep client relationships, and unmatched global reach.” He underscored the constant role of technological innovation during his leadership, asserting that WPP’s investment in AI positioned it to “look to the future with confidence.” As Cindy Rose prepares to take the reins and embark on her strategic review, she inherits a company grappling with immediate financial pressures but also one that has made considerable strides in adapting to the evolving digital landscape and embracing emerging technologies. Her review will be critical in charting a new course for the advertising giant amidst a rapidly changing industry.