Who’s going to buy MDC Partners now?
We’ve asked this question before (and had no takers) but chairman and CEO Scott Kauffman has resigned after three years during which time the company seemed to be recovering until it missed all its targets this year. MDC owns Anomaly, CP+B and 72andSunny among others so it must be worth something. Its market cap is currently $240m although there’s an uncomfortable amount of debt.
S4C’s Sir Martin Sorrell will surely take (another?) look although he says he’s not interested in creative agencies. Accenture Interactive could add to its collection of creative agencies dramatically by stepping in. Executives including Anomaly’s Carl Johnson will surely be weighing up buy-outs.
MDC was brought low by founder Miles Nadal’s free spending ways. It also doesn’t operate on a global scale, having a number of micro networks.
But there’s a fair amount of talent locked into this rambling outfit (Alex Bogusky has just returned to CP+B).
Goldman Sachs invested $95m in MDC a couple of years ago. They’ll be determined to get their money back and more.
