Lossmaking interactive advertising agency Razorfish has decided it can no longer justify a presence in Europe and hung ‘for sale’ signs over its units in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Oslo and Stockholm in an effort to move out of the red.
The move halves to six the number of the firm’s offices: its New York-headquarters plus Japanese affiliate Intervision, jointly owned with Sony, and units in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
The European operations employ roughly 200 people and in every case will be bought by local management along with the related assets and liabilities. The divestiture is expected to be complete by the year end.
Says chief executive officer Jean-Philippe Maheu : “In making this difficult decision, we considered it was important for Razorfish to concentrate its energy and resources on growing its profitable operations located in the United States.”
News source: AdWeek.com
