WPP warned former CEO Martin Sorrell that he may lose a £20M ($26.4M) bonus "if he wins the bidding battle for a highly prized Dutch advertising agency," according to Simon Duke of the LONDON TIMES. Sorrell, 73, and WPP are understood to have submitted bids for Media Monks, a digital production company worth an estimated €300M ($396M). WPP's lawyers at Slaughter & May wrote to Martin, warning that he "may be in breach of his contract if he prevails in the auction." A confidentiality clause precludes him from using information "gleaned while still running the company," sources said. The "legal broadside" marks an escalation in hostilities between Martin and the company that he "turned from a wire shopping basket maker into the world's largest advertising and marketing conglomerate" (LONDON TIMES, 7/5). In London, Hannah Boland reported news of the letter came just hours after it emerged that Sorrell's new venture "could be lining up deals" worth up to £1B ($1.3B) within the next three weeks, in a sign the advertising mogul was downplaying his ambitions in calling it a "peanut." The disclosure was made in a circular from Derriston Capital, which in May announced it agreed to buy Sorrell's S4 Capital business in a reverse takeover. Derriston said that it was "seeking approval from shareholders" to issue shares worth up to £1B, to prepare for the likelihood S4 Capital will have agreed to buy a business prior to completion of the Derriston deal on July 23 (TELEGRAPH, 7/4).
