Martin Sorrell's exit from the Ad industry sets off questions about future

Sorrell's exit would have been a big deal at any point, but the manner of his departure has amplified the attention

It came as a shock to Madison Avenue in the late 1980s when a British financial whiz named Martin Sorrell came for two pre-eminent American advertising agencies, embarking on hostile takeovers of J Walter Thompson and the Ogilvy Group on his way to forging a global empire.

Almost three decades later, Sorrell was again at the centre of another earthshaking moment for the industry. A little over a week ago, WPP announced that Sorrell had abruptly resigned as chief executive, a position that, he told Ken Auletta of The New Yorker last year, he intended to keep “until they shoot me.”

Sorrell’s