WPP has started the process for a potential sale of its public relations group Burson, according to a report.
The Times of London reported that WPP has enlisted investment bank Goldman Sachs to explore options for selling the business.
To be clear, that doesn’t mean a sale is underway or could necessarily happen.
Burson accounts for around 10 per cent of WPP’s entire business and its recent account wins include Warburtons in the UK And Burger King in France.
It was formed in 2024 with the merging of BCW and Hill & Knowlton. At the time, it was reported to be the world’s largest PR business with more than 6,000 staff in 43 markets and offered corporate and consumer PR activities.
It was named for storied PR pioneer Harold Burson, the late founder of Burson-Marsteller, which was merged with Cohn & Wolfe in 2018 to become BCW.
Last year, Burson launched ‘Reputation Capital’, an AI solution that connected drivers of reputation to specific business outcomes such as stock price, sales or purchase intent. It described the new solution as “fundamentally” advancing how reputation is measured, managed and value by brands and companies.
The news of a potential Burson sale story comes as WPP undergoes a restructuring of its business under its Elevate28 strategy pioneered by new CEO Cindy Rose. Cost cutting is central to that, with Rosie announcing she aims to cut costs by some £500 million (nearly AU$1 billion) by 2028.
This is not the first time this year that rumours have swirled regarding the sale of Burson. In February, the Financial Times reported that a WPP board meeting in late January/early February planning the Elevate28 strategy and the launch of WPP Creative, Burson was thought to be “easiest to consider for sale” as it “sits separately” from WPP’s other divisions.
“However, those close to the group downplay the likelihood of any significant sales of businesses as WPP instead seeks to simplify and build its operations,” it wrote.
Posting on LinkedIn, John Fleischmann, former group CEO of Ogilvy Canada and former WPP Canada country manager, wrote that the move “probably makes sense”.
“There’s a slightly unfashionable take on the proposed sale of #Burson. It probably makes sense.
“Not because Burson is weak. Quite the opposite. It’s a near-billion-dollar global business, built by combining BCW and Hill & Knowlton, and still winning clients like Heineken, Levi’s and Google. It continues to invest in new capabilities — from AI-driven reputation tools to expanded influence and corporate strategy.
“By any normal definition, it’s a strong, well-run business.
“But #CindyRose has been very clear about #WPP’s direction. And if you look at where WPP is winning, the logic starts to reveal itself.
“Over the past six months, the pattern is hard to ignore. The biggest wins are not coming from traditional creative. They are not coming from PR. They are overwhelmingly media-led, often global, and increasingly tied to data, commerce and AI-enabled operating models.
“Even the strongest PR firms do not control media budgets. They do not own the first-party data infrastructure that increasingly drives modern marketing. They do not sit at the centre of AI-enabled operating systems. And too often their revenues are still project-based rather than embedded in the day-to-day machinery of growth.
“This calls into question other businesses in a similar predicament such as Landor, Ogilvy, David, Grey, AKQA and other smaller networks within WPP.
“Burson, and these other business units look less like a problem and more like a mismatch. They are largely narrative-led, market-by-market-relevant, and harder to plug into a global operating system in the same way as media and data. Sure, their services matter. They’re valuable. But it’s not at the centre of this particular strategy or clients’ focus at the moment.”
