Bravo! Huntsworth boss Lord Chadlington is performing an encore. As Peter Gummer and Shandwick founder, Chadlington collected a string of U.S. PR shops via acquisition during the late `80s and ultimately merged them to super-size his operation. Shandwick was then unloaded to Interpublic.
The Huntsworth boss now plans to consolidate 26 PR brands into Grayling (full-service), Huntsworth Health, Citigate (financial) and Red (consumer) in order to better compete for multinational accounts. Grayling is to emerge as the ghost of Shandwick. Following the consolidation, Grayling will rank as a Top 5 independent firm with Edelman, Waggener Edstrom, APCO Worldwide and Ruder Finn.
Huntsworth lists the following brands on its website: Haslimann Taylor, Mmd, Momentum, SCPR, Trimedia, Hudson Sandler, Quiller Consultants, Capital Communications, Dorland Global, Helix, Evoke interaction, Brand Health International, ApotheCom, AXIOM, Curatio CME Institute,
While running Shandwick, Gummer acquired 35 PR firms during a 1986-89 acquisition rampage for an initial $90M and a possible further payout on $180M. The acquired firms, which had $100M in fees and 1,700 workers, were promised their names, management, and cultures would be kept because they were crucial to the practice of PR. That didn’t pan out.
Some of the acquired agencies, according to Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter (6/7/2000), were Henry J. Kaufman & Assocs. ($4.8M fees and 70 people) Rand PR ($1.8M and 24 employees), Adams Group and Adams Publishing Group ($5.4M and 60 employees), Casey Communications Management ($3.1M and 40 employees), Rubenstein, Wolfson & Co. ($2M and 25), Hi-Tech PR ($2.24M and 24), Mona, Meyer & McGrath ($6M and 80), Wenz-Neely ($1.5M and 23) and Dorf & Stanton ($8M and 100). Those names ultimately disappeared via consolidations and built Shandwick into a $206M PR colossus
In 1998, Gummer sold Shandwick to Interpublic for $170M, a deal that included $70M in acquisition-related debt. Gummer held 9.5 million shares of Shandwick worth $10.8 million at the time of the sale to IPG.
Good luck to the people at the vanishing brands of Huntsworth. Your fate will be determined in the upcoming weeks. Take heart as Chadlington promises he won’t force anybody into doing anything they don’t want to do. Huntsworth’s PR operations were down 9.3 percent to $88M during the first-half.
