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overview
This profile deals with the Cordiant Communications Group
(which was swallowed by WPP in 2003) and the Saatchis.
It covers -
introduction
As of 2001 Cordiant Communications Group was considered
to be the eighth largest advertising group worldwide,
with an estimated gross income of US$1.2 billion and billings
of around US$13.4 billion.
The volatility of the industry and malaise in key industry
sectors resulted in considerably lower figures two years
later, with the group being acquired by rival WPP
in July 2003 for a mere US$17 million (plus assumption
of debts).
history
Cordiant traces its origins to the agency founded by Ted
Bates (1901-72) in New York in 1940 and the Saatchi &
Saatchi agency founded in London in 1970 by Charles Saatchi
(1943- ), Maurice Saatchi (1946- ) and Tim Bell.
Saatchi grew into one of the world's largest advertising
conglomerates during the 1980s, culminating in a bid for
the UK Midland banking group, but came close to collapse
after its expansion saddled the firm with huge debts.
A sense of the pace of its acquisitions - often partly/fully
financed with paper and tied to 'earn-outs' - is provided
in the chronology below.
The Saatchi brothers left in 1995 - subsequently forming
M&C Saatchi - and the group was renamed Cordiant,
embracing the Saatchi & Saatchi agency, Bates Worldwide
and other entities.
The Saatchi agency was later spun off (and acquired by
Publicis), with Cordiant going
on to buy a range of marketing and internet consultancies
at great expense, leading to speculation in 2002 and 2003
that it would be split up or absorbed by a major competitor.
Management tensions and financial losses resulted in a
successful takeover bid by WPP (headed
by former Saatchi associate Martin Sorrell) in 2003.
holdings
Key Cordiant units included -
Bates Worldwide (inc George Patterson Bates in Australia)
PCI Live
Scholz & Friends
The Facilities Group (30%) - preproduction
Zenith Media (25%)
Lighthouse Global Network
141 Worldwide
The Decision Shop
Diamond (80%) - Korea
IBI
Healthworld
The Campaign Palace
Financial Dynamics
Gallagher & Kelly
C&FD
Fitch Worldwide
Morgen-Walke
PSD
Bamber Forsyth
CCG:XM
memoirs and studies
There has been no major study of Cordiant or many of its
components.
For the Saatchi brothers and their agencies see Ivan Fallon's
The Brothers: The Saatchi & Saatchi Story (Chicago:
Contemporary 1989), Kevin Goldman's Conflicting Accounts:
The Creation and Crash of the Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising
Empire (New York: Simon & Schuster 1997), Philip
Kleinman's The Saatchi and Saatchi story (London:
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1989) and Alison Fendley's Saatchi
& Saatchi: The Inside Story (New York: Arcade 1996).
There is a mordant account of Charles as art patron in
Supercollector: A Critique of Charles Saatchi (London:
Ellipsis 2000) by Rita Hatton & John Walker.
 next
page (Saatchi landmarks)
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