frenemy

A frenemy refers to a company that can be both a partner (customer, vendor, etc.) and a competitor at the same time.

Sir Martin Sorrell said he counts Google as a frenemy of WPP, the ad agency empire that be built. On one hand, Google offers WPP a chance to buy cutting edge interactive ads for its clients. One the other hand, Google makes no secret of its intentions to allow anyone to buy ads for themselves, which could disintermediate ad agencies.

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