Bell Pottinger
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| Private limited company | |
| Industry | Communications |
| Founded | 1998 (London) |
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Key people
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Lord Bell (Chairman) David Beck and David Wilson (Joint Managing Directors) |
| Services | Public relations |
| Revenue | £137.7 million (2010) |
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Number of employees
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300 (2015) |
| Subsidiaries | Pelham Bell Pottinger |
| Website | bell-pottinger.co.uk |
Bell Pottinger Private (legally BPP Communications Ltd.; informally Bell Pottinger) is a British multinational public relations and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
Bell Pottinger offers services such as lobbying, speech writing, search engine optimisation to clients including companies, governments and rich individuals.In 2010 Pelham Public Relations, a financial public relations business, merged with Bell Pottinger Corporate and Financial. It is the largest UK-based public relations consultancy measured by 2010 fee income.
Bell Pottinger has been criticised numerous times for edits that the company has made on pages that involve or are about their clients.
The company was hired by the Pentagon to work in Iraq against the interests of al-Qaeda for the reported sum of $540m. A report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism said the company made fake terror and news-style videos, which would then be used to track those accessing them.
The firm has been described as having "the most controversial client list" in the PR industry.
Bell Pottinger was, until July 2012, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chime Communications plc. Lord Bell, who advised Margaret Thatcher on media matters when she was UK Prime Minister, is a co-founder of Bell Pottinger.
In June 2012, Lord Bell and Bell Pottinger CEO James Henderson completed a £19.6m MBO from Chime, with Chime retaining a 25% stake in the business.
Bell Pottinger Private acquired Centreground Political Communications Limited, founded by former Tony Blair adviser Darren Murphy, in June 2014. In September that year, the company launched a new service aimed at the luxury sector.
Bell Pottinger's origins go back to 1985, when Bell and Frank Lowe founded Lowe Bell as a subsidiary of Lowe Howard-Spink. Bell and Piers Pottinger bought out Lowe Bell in 1989, and it was subsequently floated in 1994 as Chime Communications plc but retained the name Lowe Bell on some of its subsidiary companies. In 1998, the subsidiaries were renamed as Bell Pottinger after Frank Lowe demanded that his name be removed. In 2000 the Bell Pottinger Group acquired Harvard Public Relations and QBO, which was renamed Bell Pottinger Public Relations. In 2001 Bell Pottinger acquired MMK in Germany and also The Smart Company, which was merged into Corporate Citizenship when the Group acquired it in 2007. In 2003 Resonate, a consumer public relations company was set up. In 2004 Bell Pottinger Communications USA was launched and in 2005 Bell Pottinger Middle East was launched with offices in Bahrain in 2009. In 2009 Bell Pottinger Change & Internal Communications was launched and Ptarmigan in Leeds was acquired by the Bell Pottinger Group.
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