we'll hear from the ceo of wpp, st wh esadgey.rgt anc ayitus . . and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. >>> good morning i'm frank holland, here's your coronavirus update for the first time since world war ii the wimbledon tennis tournament will not be held this summer organizers said with great regret they had to cancel due to coronavirus health concerns. america's top doctor appearing on the "today" show this morning to push social distancing and other measures. >> the somber news is coronavirus has spread across our country, all 50 states no one is spared. the good news is states like washington, california, countries like italy when they leaned into aggressive mitigation they're able to flatten their curve. we know if you do this it takes about three to four weeks from the time you start to lean into it before you level it off. >>> the captain of a u.s. aircraft carrier is working to evacuate most of his 5,000 crew members as sailors becom

people at wpp, including myself, are taking pay cuts.oking at ways of people working for five days a week, and at some point, if things get particularly difficult, we can't rule out that we will have to look at job cuts in all parts of the world. my goal as chief executive is to protect as many jobs as possible as we go through this, like other chief executives. it is very important. throughout this period, making sure that staff is our number one priority has been critical. that we couldaid get 100,000 people to work from home for weeks ago, i would have said you were mad, but we have done that. our responsibilities to our people. we are going to take the steps necessary to protect as many jobs as we can as we go through this period. alix: i know how you feel. i am broadcasting from home and haven't gone to black yet, so that is a really good sign. the other thing is you canceled your dividend and your buyback. that has surprised some analysts. were you just being extra cautious with your cash buffer, or do you see something that the an

shift to digital helps wpp's business.gest media partners, google and facebook, we make a lot of progress working with them. i don't think that is going to impact us. it is really making sure that we've made necessary investments in technology, which is something we've focused on for the last 10 or 15 years. alix: to that point, let's go through the steps. . you guys took. in particular, i want to focus on your staffing. you freeze new hires, looking at freelance expenditures. you are going to cut discretionary costs, postpone any salary increases for 2020. how long does that template sustain you? when do you have to talk about job cuts? mark: coming into this, what is important to recognize is we've raised 3.2 billion pounds over the last few months, so we come into it with probably the lowest net debt the company has had in the last 10 years. we are in a strong position financially. our view is that those companies in the strongest position will come out of the best place. we face the same uncertainty everybody does. we

that's we were determined to do for wpp.t was our exclusive conversation with wpp chief read, alix steel doing that interview. we continue to get lines across from christine lagarde. to is saying we would like see a bit more inflation. i'm not sure if that was tongue-in-cheek, but that's the kind of thing we have been hearing for a solid eight years now. beenization as it has dashed globalization as it has been will be questioned according to christine lagarde. if you are watching the currency , kristie lagarde is saying she is not unhappy with the level of the euro. she finds the movement to be stable. a lot coming out of the ecb right now. i thought it was probably the most interesting thing we learned so far. she said that each month of a 3% of gdp,osts 2- referring to the euro area, per month. is saying that debt has to be paid back gradually. of course, everyone from average consumers to large businesses are amassing debt right now. we are minutes away from the open. up next, the rally that started the week has hit a wa

coming back to things here in europe wpp also in focus.ompany has reported a 3.3% fall in first quarter sales. revenues tumble in march alone as the pandemic continues to impact the advertising industry. the world's biggest advertising agency expects to feel an impact but couldn't say by how much >> alphabet dropped over $41 million. the ceo said the usage of search, youtube and other apps were higher as urss search for more information on covid-19 let's get to karen with more on these figures. no surprise they've seen a spike in usage and search. how monday tiesable is the fact that more users are using their search engine? >> that's the issue. just because you are searching doesn't mean an add will be placed beside it they don't want that information next to the covid-19 earnings were higher under the $6.84 billion and above the $6.66 billion. with revenue and l$61.66 billion reported a huge amount from the advertising industry what you have in expectations were trading high on expectations in january. those are very much taken down as w

coming up, and exclusive interview with the chief executive of wpp.it for the "european open." stay with bloomberg television. up next, "surveillance, i'm heading over to bloomberg radio. tune in. ♪ ♪ francine: euro area finance ministers failed to agree on an economic plan to tackle the crisis. the latest from brussels. new york and the u.k. report the worst death toll since the coronavirus began. wuhan has returned to normal after lockdown is lifted. boris johnson remains in intensive care. the government says his condition is stable. welcome to "bloomberg surveillance."

the world's biggest advertising firm, wpp, he said we have seen ten years' innovation in four weeks.a lot of firms not only office-based firms but a lot of firms are thinking what can we do to actually take some of this change, some of this disruption we are seeing around us, how do we make our firms leaner, faster, better, because of it? ashley: social media also finally is certainly a lifeline but there's been some criticism that the social media platforms haven't done a good enough job of blocking some of these conspiracy theories. this must be a difficult time, too, for social media companies to keep an eye on that. >> no doubt. when any firm, when any social media firm, we are thinking about 2020, they were focused on one thing, election integrity and avoiding the disruption that we might have seen in the past. this was not in the plan. and i think social media firms are very much now having to rescramble their plan to try and work out how this works. the challenge, of course, is where do we draw the line. we have seen pop stars sharing news about 5g, we have seen politicians sh