Thinking of selling your ad agency? Agency boss Ahmad Islam has a warning: “It’s all heart emojis up until the day the deal closes. Then it gets weird.”
Islam in late 2014 sold Chicago agency Commonground to private-equity firm PCH Communications, and “for a variety of reasons it did not work out,” he said on a panel Wednesday at Ad Age’s Small Agency Conference in Marina del Rey, California. But after multicultural network Commonground/MGS, which housed Commonground after the sale, shuttered in late 2015 amid financial problems, Islam rebounded in 2016 with Ten35, an agency where he is CEO and managing partner.
For his second act, Islam explained, he made sure to retain control, keeping a 51 percent stake. (Eastport Holdings, an agency holding company, owns the rest.)
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Source: Ad Age – Agency
