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WPP Chief Settles Libel Suit

Bloomberg, Thursday, March 29, 2007 10:45 AM

The head of WPP Group has taken $236,000 -- roughly one-tenth of his legal costs -- to settle a libel lawsuit against two former colleagues. Martin Sorrell says no regrets about suing Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli, founders of Italian ad firm Fullsix SpA. He accused them of running an online hate campaign against him, along with spreading a picture of him and WPP executive Daniela Weber, with the pair referred to as "the mad dwarf and the nympho schizo."

Benatti and Tinelli do not accept liability as part of the settlement and the amount Sorrell accepted was the same offered him before the case began. "It was an assault on WPP and myself, individually and professionally," Sorrell says. "An anonymous attack of this kind is not something we take lightly." Weber, who once had a relationship with Sorrell, accepted damages of 30,000 pounds over the picture.

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