• The Guardian, Monday, June 9, 2008 11:32 AM

What keeps WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell awake at night? Google. In fact, Sorrell is so familiar with the online advertising giant, he's committed its revenue and market capitalization to memory. Google is currently worth $180 billion, with expected 2008 revenues of $22 billion. Meanwhile, WPP Group, Omnicom, Interpublic and Publicis-the four largest ad agency holding companies-have a combined market cap of $45 billion, on combined revenue of about $33 billion.

"So (Google has) two thirds of the revenues and their market cap is almost four times bigger than the top four advertising companies," Sorrell says. "The market is saying something about our relative strengths."

Indeed, Sorrell worries in particular about Google displacing traditional media, where the vast majority of his companies' budgets are spent. "Some of the things they do, do tend to suggest that is what might happen," he says. Meanwhile, Sorrell says that WPP's short-term aim is to get "to a state where a third of our revenues or thereabouts are digitally influenced." Key to that goal is the U.S. ad network giant 24/7 Real Media, which WPP purchased last year.

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