• The Guardian, Monday, June 9, 2008 9:31 AM

For WPP's Martin Sorrell, the obstacles to his latest takeover attempt of Taylor Nelson Sofres don't make sense. Sorrell wants a bigger slice of the market research pie, but his three approaches to TNS and was swiftly rebuffed each time. A deal with TNS would help WPP leapfrog over Omnicom to become the world's biggest advertising behemoth.

TNS says it prefers a merger of equals with its German rival GfK, but Sorrell contends, "mergers of equals tend to be the two drunkards being propped up by the lamppost." He says TNS is "prejudiced against engaging with us."

Sorrell also admits that Google keeps him awake at night. Compared to the top four ad companies, "Google has two thirds of the revenues, and their market cap is almost four times bigger. The market is saying something about our relative strengths," he says. Google is an "elephant in the room" that could make traditional media companies redundant.

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