Digitas and Razorfish to consolidate international operations

The agencies’ global operations including finance and talent management will be merged to create single-service teams for Razorfish and Digitas. Operations related to technology, data services and R&D will also be synchronised.

Western reports suggest that Razorfish and Digitas would additionally move into offices in the same buildings in some markets, including India, and job losses would be a possibility. Representatives from the agencies could not be reached for comment.

International president for Digitas Stephan Beringer, who has led the integration work, will assume a permanent operations role for both agencies in Asia-Pacific and Europe. 

Razorfish COO Sydney Hunsdale will become CFO of Vivaki EMEA, while CFO of Digitas Joe Tomasulo will oversee finance for the group and talent will be managed by Alicia Shankland, currently head of human resources for Razorfish.

Dave Friedman, president of the Americas Region for Razorfish, will oversee similar cross-brand synergies in Latin America.

“The harmonisation principle has been simple. We do need two digital agencies. We don’t need a redundant support framework, and we can simultaneously make each agency more agile and effective while protecting client confidentiality,” said David Kenny (pictured), managing partner of Vivaki.

Publicis acquired Razorfish in August, purchasing the digital company from Microsoft for US$530 million after intense rounds of bidding against rival holding companies including Dentsu. There has since been speculation about Razorfish's financial performance under Microsoft.

In Asia-Pacific, Razorfish’s agencies are Hong Kong-based e-Crusade, which handles Nike among other clients, Amnesia Razorfish in Australia and a joint venture with Dentsu in Japan.