As founder MARTIN SORRELL’s ad firm S4 Capital is under stress and its stock price is plunging, he has "received several merger offers from Stagwell,” an ad firm led by former BILL CLINTON adviser MARK PENN, according to sources. Sorrell “rebuffed the offers” because in his view, they “undervalued the company and Stagwell wasn’t a good strategic fit.” One proposal, made last fall, was “worth nearly” $700M. At least one private-equity firm also “expressed some interest in acquiring S4.” Even though S4 is publicly traded, Sorrell has “effective veto power over most deals because he has voting control.” His reluctance to entertain offers has “frustrated senior executives, some of whom are looking to facilitate a sale.” Stagwell’s clients include Bud Light and the NFL (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/22).
NAMES: Former T’Wolves coaching analyst SOMAK SARKAR was released from jail Thursday after being accused of stealing a hard drive from the office of a T’Wolves basketball exec in February. In Minnesota district court records, Sarkar on Feb. 3 entered the office of “S.G.” -- believed to be T’Wolves EVP SACHIN GUPTA -- and took the hard drive containing “both personal and professional information.” Sarkar allegedly was “observed on video surveillance entering the office of the executive vice president.” Sarkar was fired in February and arrested on March 18, charged with a third-degree burglary of entering without consent with intent to steal/commit felony or gross misdemeanor (USA TODAY, 3/22)....The philanthropic foundation of Mets owner STEVE COHEN and his wife ALEXANDRA gifted $116M to CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College to set up the Cohen Career Collective, intended when it opens in 2029 to be the biggest career and technical training center in the city and its environs. The amount is the "most anyone has ever given to the nation’s largest urban higher education institution." The goal here is "pure pragmatics: to prepare thousands of people of limited means for high-quality, well paying jobs in fast-growing fields to give them a solid foothold in the middle class" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/23).
