WPP Wants What It Wants And When It Wants It

After six months, WPP Group is still chasing down Nurun. The Montreal-based interactive shop’s current majority holder is Quebecor Media, run by one Pierre Karl Péladeau. Pierre has been trying to take Nurun private for months. Last month, he offered $4.75 a share for the 42 per cent of the company it doesn’t own. But WPP has sent a written offer for $5.25 a share in cash. Quebecor Media’s controlling interest allows it to deny any takeover of bids of Nurun and apparently, has strong support among the minority stockholders making it tough for WPP to nab the firm. Yet, WPP has made it clear that they’ll take whatever they can get including only the publicly traded shares. The Globe and Mail has more details on the history of the contentious bidding.

Ah, the big bully. WPP’s Martin Sorrell has been buying up shops left and right throughout 2007 and we’re sure he’ll continue. Paid Content speculates that “there are still a few independent shops available in the U.S. And NYP offers some speculation on some possible targets, including LA-based digital creative shop Spot Runner. WPP already owns 3 percent of of the company. Sorrell is also said to be eying mobile marketer JumpTap and video ad network VideoEgg.”

We wonder how many bids shops such as Poke, Campfire, Deep Focus and  the rest of AdAge’s indie interactive shop list got in 2007. You think Sorrell took a run at them?