(Reuters) – London-based marketing agency MSQ Partners on Thursday ruled out a potential merger with Martin Sorrell’s advertising group S4 Capital.
MSQ said in a statement that such discussions may have taken place between representatives of its majority shareholder One Equity Partners (OEP) and S4 Capital, but its board was not involved.
Neither OEP nor MSQ intends to pursue further discussions regarding the transaction, MSQ added.
S4 Capital declined to comment.
The company, which operates in 33 countries, had confirmed that it was in early talks to potentially combine with MSQ.
S4 Capital was founded in 2018 by Martin Sorrell, who previously built WPP into the world’s largest ad agency. He left WPP after denying a misconduct allegation.
MSQ Partners has more than 250 clients, including Unilever, Haleon, P&G and Lego.
(Reporting by Shanima A, Nithyashree R B and Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
