Microsoft moves $400m CRM account to Wunderman

by Staff,, Brand Republic 13-Feb-04, 08:45

NEW YORK - Microsoft has consolidated its $400m customer relationship marketing account into WPP Group's Wunderman and Interpublic's MRM Partners Worldwide, according to reports.

At the same time, IBM is reported to have shifted its global direct marketing account out of WPP's Wunderman and into sister WPP agency OgilvyOne New York.

The shift was prompted by Wunderman's Microsoft win. Ogilvy & Mather is IBM's long-term global agency, having been first awarded the ad account in the early 1990s.

Microsoft's CRM work had previously been split between a number of agencies. Wunderman's account also includes business-to-business advertising.

In another development at the company, Microsoft, headed by Bill Gates, said on Thursday that portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code had been illegally made available on the internet.

In a statement, it said: "We are currently investigating these postings and are working with the appropriate law-enforcement authorities. At this point it does not appear that this is the result of any breach of Microsoft's corporate network or internal security."

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