• by David Kaplan , November 3, 2004

Despite reporting a noteworthy amount of organic growth for the third quarter, Interpublic Group's ongoing restructuring initiatives and inability to rein in higher costs led to a wider loss on the period. In its quarterly report, IPG, revealed a loss of $578.4 million, or $1.42 per share, a larger loss than the $327 million drop, or $1.08 per share, for the 2003 third quarter.

On the bright side, third quarter revenue increased 6.3 percent to $1.51 billion. The company's revenue rose at an organic rate of 1.8 percent, compared to a slide of more than 3 percent in the third quarter of 2003.

Total revenue was up 5.1 percent in the United States and 7.9 percent overseas.

The company's operating margin for the quarter was a negative 27.8 percent, compared to negative 12.1 percent in the third quarter of 2003. Taking out the charges, it was 4.3 percent, down from 7.7 percent.

"We've been clear that our progress in righting Interpublic would not be linear," said David Bell, IPG's chief executive in a statement. "We continue making progress on organic revenue and other turnaround metrics.