By Kevin McCauley
Interpublic is being sued by a former senior account manager who claims that he convinced management to take an equity stake in Facebook in 2006, an investment that turned into a financial windfall for the ad/PR combine.
Ray Volpe says he was at first rebuffed by IPG, which told him that he was “out of his mind” for pushing for the investment in the social networker. But IPG then agreed after he promised to personally guarantee ad revenue for Facebook.
IPG shelled out $2.5M for Facebook preferred stock. The suit claims that IPG sold half of that investment in August 2011 for $133.5M and the rest for $249.6M on May 18 during Facebook’s IPO. Volpe says he received no money from IPG for his investment tip.
Volpe’s suit filed in New York State Supreme Court alleges breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment and recovery of IPG’s pre-tax gain from the Facebook stock sale.
IPG says Volpe’s lawsuit has no merit, saying the decision to invest in Facebook was made at the corporate level.
It believes Volpe is trying to make to make a big financial gain by taking advantage of a “very successful commercial decision” taken by IPG. |