As a follow on to the news earlier this week that Ogilvy is laying off 90 staffers, Jim Edwards over at bNet has a great post explaining that it’s all due to the massive debt WPP is carrying. As he noted in an earlier post, the Poisoned Dwarfs empire doubled it net debt to $3.4 fucking billion when he went on another of his lunatic buying sprees. This will require him to pay off a massive £850 million lump in 2010. Even Ogilvy’s recent wins won’t help, as clients continue to cut budgets, and CDW came from another WPP shop (JWT) so it’s in the same shitty pot. So, having pushed through a $95 million pay package for himself that depends on the performance of rapidly sinking stock, there’s only one thing to do…. Exactly what every other greedy fucktard CEO does when in danger of losing all those lovely millions… Lay people off. After all they’re just numbers on a balance sheet. Any agency that belongs to a holding group is fucked. And it’s going to get worse.
I'm on tip-toes now!