SKDKnickerbocker, the Washington PR firm with deep ties to Democrats, is being bought by Mark Penn’s investment firm. Penn, a former pollster and political strategist, worked on Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign with Bill Knapp, a managing director at SKDK. Penn left Microsoft earlier this year to start a Stagwell Group, […]

The private equity firm founded with a quarter-billion dollar check from the former Microsoft chief Steven A. Ballmer has made its first purchase. The firm, the Stagwell Group, which is being run by the former advertising executive Mark Penn, will acquire SKDKnickerbocker, the public relations group best known for its […]

Mark Penn in September will leave Microsoft, where he has served as exec VP and strategy officer, to start a company that will invest in advertising, research, data analytics, public relations and digital marketing companies. Ex-Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, is an investor in the company, called Stagwell Group, which will […]

Mark Penn, a Microsoft senior executive who formerly worked at WPP, is leaving the technology firm to found a new company that will invest in digital marketing services. Mr. Penn’s new fund, Stagwell Group LLC, has raised $250 million in funding, including from former Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who […]

Satya Nadella is still decorating his new office as Microsoft CEO, but he’s wasted no time making sweeping executive changes. In the same internal memo that announced the departure of senior leaders Tony Bates and Tami Reller, the company revealed that Mark Penn is Redmond’s new chief strategy officer. Penn […]

SEATTLE — Mark Penn made a name for himself in Washington by bulldozing enemies of the Clintons. Now he spends his days trying to do the same to Google, on behalf of its archrival Microsoft. Since Mr. Penn was put in charge of “strategic and special projects” at Microsoft in […]

Microsoft has hired Mark Penn–a well-known political strategist, pollster and CEO of the Burson-Marsteller public-relations firm–to a new corporate strategy role reporting directly to Steve Ballmer. The initial focus: igniting more consumer use of Bing, the Microsoft Web search engine. In an interview, Mr. Penn said he is assembling a […]