A source from the agency said that 45 people in total were losing their jobs, 20 from the Intel account, which McCann lost recently due to Intel’s new ‘open source’ policy, while about 25 from MRM are being let go regionally. Some of the MRM layoffs are believed to be linked to budget cuts by key client Microsoft.
A spokeswoman for McCann said that only 10 were confirmed to be losing their jobs in China, and that those who were working on the Intel account had been relocated to other accounts. “We still may do Intel business as it is now ‘open source’,” she said.
A spokesperson for MRM declined to comment.