According to a New York Times report, Canadian holding company, MDC Partners, is buying Powell, a small creative shop in New York, and folding it in with Margeotes Fertitta & Partners, a mid-sized shop already in the MDC stable.
MDC bought a majority of Margeotes Fertitta in 1998; the rest is owned by Mr. Fertitta and other senior managers. Some of the other shops under the MDC umbrella include Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Cliff Freeman & Partners, Kirshenbaum Bond and Mono.
The Powell deal would be the first in which MDC has acquired an American agency and merged it with one that MDC already owns. MDC has previously done that in making some Canadian acquisitions.
The combined Margeotes Fertitta Powell is to have about 167 employees, 150 from Margeotes Fertitta and 17 from Powell. Combined billings are estimated at $255 million, $25 million from Powell and $230 million from Margeotes Fertitta.
