Attention founder Curtis Hougland explains on his firm’s blog why MDC Partners–the holding company that owns Crispin Porter & Bogusky and many other fine agencies–decided to invest in his growing Word-of-Mouth concern. …we are at an inflection point in social media, the shift from early adopter to early majority, a horizontal skill set requiring more [...]
Holding Companies Fish In Microsoft’s Waters
August 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is entertaining competing bids for Razorfish, the digital ad firm it acquired and now wants to offload. Publicis bid between $500 million and $600 million for Razorfish, and Dentsu made a higher offer, according to people familiar with the bidding. A key negotiating point has been the buyer’s [...]
IPG, Like Many Others, Suffering from Severe Lack of Income
July 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
According to The Wall Street Journal, Interpublic Group of Cos. reported a 71% drop in second-quarter profit. The New York-based parent company of DraftFCB and McCann-Erickson reported earnings of $27.8 million, down from $95.1 million a year earlier. Ouch. Interestingly, the paper seems to be taking the news in stride. There’s no big article, no [...]
Garfield Takes On Wren
July 20, 2008 By 1 Comment
Say what you will about Bob Garfield, but his column does get the attention of the ad industry. And this week’s column, An Open Letter to John Wren, will certainly get attention, as he addresses the CEO of Omnicom about some not-so-subtle gay bashing in this Snickers spot done by AMV BBDO in London. The [...]
Wren Wrangles Earnings
February 12, 2008 By Leave a Comment
According to Adweek, Omnicom–the world’s largest advertising holding company, with BBDO, DDB, TBWA, OMD and PHD, among others on the roster–is making good money. Omnicom’s fourth-quarter net income rose more than 13 percent to $314 million on a 12.7 percent increase in revenue to $3.62 billion, compared to the same period a year ago. CEO [...]
MDC Likes A Loose Grip, But Crispin’s Success Could Make Them Grabby
September 30, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Matthew Creamer of Ad Age speculates on an ownership struggle at Crispin. This year, MDC Partners has the option to raise its stake in Crispin from 49% to 60%, according to financial filings. In 2008, the stake could be increased to 77%. MDC has deferred these options in the past and could do so again. [...]
So Just Exactly Who Is Sir Martin Sorrell?
March 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment
I know our friend George Parker has an opinion or two about the CEO of WPP, but how did Sorrell get to be one of the most powerful people in the advertising industry? Here’s a good overview of Sorrell’s background, which is in the news again as he’s currently involved in a pretty nasty lawsuit [...]
Quote Of The Day
December 4, 2006 By Leave a Comment
“We’re turning Interpublic into a real company.” So says Michael Roth, CEO of Interpublic. Ad Age has the full report on what Roth said today at a media-industry conference.
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