London — Martin Sorrell beat WPP in the race to buy a Dutch digital agency on Tuesday, infuriating his former company and revealing the animosity raging between the two sides. Sorrell left the world’s biggest advertising group, WPP, in April over a complaint of personal misconduct. Leaving without a noncompete clause, he set up a new company weeks later and took on his former firm in a bid battle for the agency MediaMonks. Incensed, WPP had warned Sorrell that he would lose his multimillion-pound share awards if he did not back off, arguing that their former CEO and founder had known about its interest in the agency before he left. Having consulted lawyers, the world’s most well-known advertising man pressed on regardless through his new vehicle, S4 Capital. "WPP’s lawyers wrote to Sir Martin’s lawyers last week pointing out the breach of Sir Martin’s confidentiality undertakings in his approach to MediaMonks after his resignation from WPP," a spokesman for the FTSE 100 company said...
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