• Ad Age, Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:30 AM

Omnicom Group's GSD&M Idea City is about to fire 100 to 200 people, due to the loss of its piece of AT&T's $3.4 billion media account, insiders say. While Idea City Chairman-CEO Roy Spence is expected to soon inform the employees, he declines to confirm the number of layoffs. He does say they stem from the telco's October decision to consolidate its media account at WPP Group's Mediaedge:cia.

"Mediaedge won the media business from Omnicom and us, [and] we simply have more jobs than we have work on that media side," Spence says. "It was a giant piece of media." The shop had handled media planning and buying for AT&T's land-line business but earlier this year, the client moved lead account responsibilities to BBDO. GSD&M declines to disclose the size of its work force, but in 2006, the shop had 891 staffers, according to data from the trade magazine.

Ultimately, the agency could be down to half of what it was at its peak, according to one insider, who notes the shop has already lost about 100 employees in the last couple months.

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