BUENOS AIRES: Agency acquisition fever has spread to Argentina, where Euro RSCG last week completed the purchase of a top firm and Manning, Selvage & Lee closed in on another.
BUENOS AIRES: Agency acquisition fever has spread to Argentina,
where Euro RSCG last week completed the purchase of a top firm and
Manning, Selvage & Lee closed in on another.
French PR giant Euro RSCG’s acquisition of Lautrec, Argentina’s biggest
independent PR agency, made the bigger splash, owing to potential staff
cuts and client conflicts. While Euro announced that no more than 10% of
the newly merged firm’s staff would be let go or reassigned, doubts
remain as to whether there is considerably more overlap.
The agencies did not announce how conflicts among their clients -
notably Toyota (Lautrec) and Peugeot (Euro) - would be resolved. There
is also some question as to leadership succession. Former Lautrec head
Gianni Gasparini will serve as president of the Argentine operation, but
top execs Lia Ghelfi (Lautrec) and Adriana Lauro (Euro) have not yet
learned their fates.
Meanwhile, MS&L has been negotiating with PR agency Muchnik, Alurralde,
Jasper. While MAJ has made no secret of its desire to partner with a
US-based global firm, a promise from an agency exec of ’new things in
August’ never materialized. Ogilvy had previously pursued the agency,
but negotiations broke down.
