Publicis Groupe, the major shareholder of Basic and Publicis-AMA, has been structuring the deal for about a year now. The original plan was to merge the media departments of Basic, Publicis-AMA and Ace/Saatchi & Saatchi, but the latter rejected the deal. Publicis, through Saatchi & Saatchi, owns 29 per cent of Ace/Saatchi & Saatchi.
Rey Icasas, president of Ace/Saatchi & Saatchi, said: "We opted not to join. We just didn't feel it was the right time. It was not a buy-out deal. It was a business offer premised on making money. We felt we were strong enough as an agency."
The new outfit is still ironing out operational details. It is expected to be headed by August Benitez of Publicis-AMA, while Oz Trinidad, media director at Basic Advertising, is expected to be second-in-command.
Under the new set-up, there will be three divisions, according to an industry source. One will handle Basic clients, another, Publicis-AMA clients, and the third will focus on getting agency of record businesses.
Basic has more than 30 staff in its media department, while Publicis-AMA has 20.
