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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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040389
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04038900.015
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1990-09-22
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BUSINESS, Page 51Business NotesADVERTISINGBad Day for A Behemoth
Investors had barely settled into their chairs at the annual
meeting in London of Saatchi & Saatchi, the world's largest
advertising agency, when Chairman Maurice Saatchi unloaded his
uncomfortable secret. The firm's profits, he said, will slump
during 1989 for the first time since the agency was founded 19
years ago. Said he: "It's going to be a tough year." Stunned by the
abrupt reversal at the juggernaut company, analysts slashed their
predictions of its 1989 profits from $280 million to about $165
million. The company's stock plunged, falling more than 15% on the
day of the announcement.
Maurice Saatchi attributed the setback to a falloff in the
firm's consulting business, along with a decline in U.S.
advertising spending. But many investors suspect that the British
firm's overall strategy of pell-mell growth, including the takeover
of the Ted Bates Worldwide agency for $450 million in 1986, may
have created an unmanageable corporate sprawl. After many of
Saatchi & Saatchi's takeovers, the acquired firms have lost both
executives and clients. Last week's announcement suggests that for
Saatchi & Saatchi, building an empire was easier than ruling it.