MAM
WPP accuses Martin Sorrell of unlawfully using information
MUMBAI: Martin Sorrell’s attempt to acquire Dutch production house MediaMonksh has run into rough weather with WPP accusing its former boss of unlawfully using confidential company information in the acquisition process.
According to the reports, the company allegedly called in lawyers after Sorrell’s new company, S4 Capital, announced a bid for MediaMonks – a company he encountered during his tenure of WPP.
The Guardian reported that WPP’s lawyers have told Sorrell that a MediaMonks buyout is unlawful because it would use information gathered during his course of employment with WPP, and would “likely be in breach of confidentiality obligations”.
Meanwhile, it has been suggested that the acquisition would jeopardise Sorrell’s long-term share award, valued at around $41m, over the next five years.
The bidding war comes after Sorrell indicated to investors that he would not seek to compete with WPP following his departure.
Founded in Holland in 2001, the creative production house Media Monks currently has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Singapore, Shanghai, Stockholm, Dubai and Sao Paulo.
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MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
