NEW YORK: The Interpublic Group announced last week that its third-quarter revenue declined more than 5% this year compared to the same period in 2004, citing client losses as well as the expensive and ongoing effort to put the holding company's muddled books in order.
IPG's third-quarter revenue was $1.44 billion in 2005. Its US revenue fell 5.5% from the previous year, to $866 million, while international revenue dropped 4.4%. For the first nine months of the year, the company's revenue was $4.39 billion, down less than 1% from 2004.
IPG's Constituency Management Group, which houses its major PR agencies, saw quarterly revenue virtually unchanged at $226 million.
CMG's year-to-date revenue fell about 2%, to $664 million.
In its filing, IPG cited "growth in the public relations business worldwide" for the first three quarters of 2005.
In a conference call, IPG CEO Michael Roth cited PR as one of one of the company's few bright spots. "Our PR business is doing very well, which is a strong component of CMG," he said. "On the PR side both Weber Shandwick, who continues to win a lot of awards in terms of globally, we are very pleased with, as well as GolinHarris being positioned as a key player in the PR environment. So we are very pleased with those performances."
In September, IPG released a long-delayed financial report that
restated its earnings for the past five years by more than $500 million. The company has lost several accounts this year, including marketing services for Bank of America.
