WPP earnings today show a 7.4 percent revenue growth, with full-year revenue numbers topping £10 billion (about $16 billion, according to today’s conversion rates) for the first time. Profits also exceeded £1 billion, a first-ever for the marketing giant.

Billings for the company were up 4.9 percent for the year to £44.8 billion (about $71.4 billion). And operating profits reached £1.43 billion (about $2.28 billion).

On the PR and public affairs front, revenue for the year totaled £886 million (about $1.41 billion), up 4.8 percent. WPP firms include Ogilvy PR, Burson-Marsteller, and Hill & Knowlton. For more info on WPP’s earnings, click here.

Coupled with the earnings announcement came word that the WPP HQ will likely move back to London from Dublin.

And the company’s leader, Sir Martin Sorrell, is responding to criticism of the company’s support of the new Sunday edition of The Sun, a News International paper. Sorrell has said that, as ethical corrections are being made in light of the huge phone-hacking scandal, he doesn’t see a problem with placing advertisers there.

“From a News Corporation point of view as long as it deals with the problems … effectively, efficiently and properly rooting out problems and relaunching in an effective way I think that works,” he told The Guardian. The paper said yesterday it sold more than 3.25 million copies.

[image: Stringer/France/Reuters]