By Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) -Mark Read will step down as CEO of WPP, the global advertising giant said on Monday, after seven years in which fierce competition, technological change and challenges in key sectors and geographies led its share price to halve.

Read, who replaced founder Martin Sorrell in the top job at the Ogilvy and GroupM owner, said he had built a simpler, stronger WPP by merging agencies to provide a broader service to clients, increasingly centred on artificial intelligence.

But WPP, which lost its crown as the biggest ad group to France's Publicis last year, has struggled to grow.

It has been hampered by notable client losses, its greater exposure to China than rivals and the upheaval sparked by artificial intelligence, which gives clients the tools to create and manage more of their own marketing campaigns.

Organic revenue declined by 1% in 2024, and the outlook for 2025 remains muted, with forecasts ranging from flat growth to a 2% decline. Shares, which have fallen more than 50% since Read took over, hit a five-year low in April and were down 1.75% by 1104 GMT.

WPP appointed former Worldpay and BT boss Philip Jansen to chair its board at the beginning of the year, fuelling speculation that he may shake up management of a company with more than 100,000 staff.

"Mark has played a central role in transforming the company into a world leader in modern marketing services, with deep AI, data and technology capabilities, global presence and unrivalled creative talent, setting WPP up well for longer-term success," Jansen said.

Read said it was the right time to hand over to a new leader.

"Our clients today rate us more highly than ever before, we now work with four of the world's five most valuable companies, and our revenues with our biggest clients have grown consistently," he said.

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Read will leave WPP more integrated after years of acquisitions by Sorrell, who created the world's largest ad group through buying agencies including J. Walter Thompson in 1987, Ogilvy in 1989, Young & Rubicam in 2000 and Grey in 2004.

He has consolidated WPP's more than 200 brands into six core companies and WPP Open, its AI-powered marketing platform.

This more focused group has won more business from its major clients, which include the likes of Ford, Google and Unilever, but it has also had some losses, notably Pfizer.

It is in a four-way battle for a large part of Mars' non-creative business. WPP's EssenceMediacom has held the media planning and buying accounts since 2018.

One major shareholder, who asked not be named, said Read had jettisoned world-renowned agencies, losing some clients and talent in the process.

The shareholder said he expected WPP to look externally for a new CEO, and said the likelihood that the group could be broken up had increased.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Kate Holton in London and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Kate Holton and Louise Heavens)