MAM
WPP faces twin lawsuits as media arm stumbles
NEW YORK: WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group, is being sued by investors who reckon the company misled them about the state of its struggling media business. Two class-action lawsuits—one from Rosen Law Firm, another from Glancy Prongay & Murray—have reportedly been filed against the British giant, both chasing shareholders who bought American depositary shares between 27 February and 8 July 2025.
The complaints claim WPP painted a rosy picture whilst hiding an ugly truth: that its media arm, formerly called GroupM and now renamed WPP Media, was losing ground to rivals and couldn’t hack the tough economic climate. On 9 July, the firm finally admitted that performance had “deteriorated” through the second quarter, blaming “macro uncertainty” and “weaker net new business” alongside “distraction” from restructuring its media operations.
Investors weren’t amused. The shares plunged $6.48—an 18.1 per cent drop—to close at $29.34. The lawsuits allege that WPP’s upbeat statements lacked any reasonable basis and that executives concealed the media division’s market-share losses.
Both firms are now racing to recruit a lead plaintiff before the 8 December deadline. Rosen Law Firm, which boasts of securing the largest-ever securities settlement against a Chinese company, says investors may be entitled to compensation without upfront costs. Glancy Prongay & Murray is pitching a similar deal.
No class has been certified yet, and shareholders needn’t do anything to remain part of the action. But if they fancy leading the charge, they’d better move fast. WPP’s troubles, it seems, are only just beginning to bite.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
