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Definitely using both of these.

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Are we all fucked?

Any word on Swift in Portland?
Alas, I don't qualify.

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It's a deal with private equity. Private equity is the great destroyer of all it touches. They're going to gut RGA and strip it for parts. This isn't about creative independence, this is about maximizing profit
This aged well….
lol, sweet child.
I love the spin that this is somehow R/GA “going back” or becoming “independent”. They’re being sold to a fricken Private Equity firm.
Why can’t companies just be happy cutting a little more than even and stop trying to grow over 9000% each year??
R/GA is too expensive for that shit.
So you'd rather stay under networks that are killing agencies left and right too? Honest question.
This is good news for R/GA. IPG didn't know what to do with the company. The story about the $50m fund to build AI capabilities and acquire businesses suggests that the VC owner is planning to grow R/GA rather than strip it.
IPG is the poster child for financial mismanagement in this decade.
Definitely not, I think my statement was more or less that they are not independent. Being part of VC is still part of something. Is it better than holding company? I don’t have experience to answer.
Thanks! Just wanted to make sure people understand what's ACTUALLY happening here...
It'd be bad business to buy a company and run it into the ground (financially). The difference is that the PE firm's ultimate goal is to sell for profit. A Holdco does not seek to do that, so the incentives are different.
But expect aggressive changes for both R/GA and Huge etc. Unlike a fairly well oiled machine like Kantar (also PE owned after WPP sold it), these 2 companies were not doing well, which means everything is likely on the table (for better or worse).
Congratulations to R/GA and team!
How’s this work? Sell to a holding co for x dollars, then holding co tanks the value of the agency, and then you buy back at a lower price hoping to build it up again?
R/GA sold to a holdco back in the 90s so this would need to be a VERY slow burn conspiracy theory.
Is being part of a holding company or becoming beholden go a VC firm really the only options these days? Are any agencies still able to sustain their independence?
Giant Spoon is still independent, after over 12 years in operation
It’s just a ‘make believe’ independence.