• by Joe Mandese , December 1, 2008

Shares of the Aegis Group opened slightly lower this morning, after rallying late last week on speculation that a takeover may be imminent. The speculation was sparked by the abrupt, and unexpected, resignation of Robert Lerwill as CEO.

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., the London-based agency holding company announced that Lerwill would step down effective today and that his duties would be assumed by Aegis Chairman John Napier on an interim basis.

Aegis, the parent of giant media networks like Carat, and the world's largest interactive advertising services network, Isobar, also has considerable holdings in marketing and media research via its Synovate division. Its media networks recently have had some poor luck in new business and client retention, most recently losing the high profile Renault/Nissan consolidated media buying account to Nissan incumbent OMD.

Speculation on an Aegis takeover had been rampant a year or two ago, when French financier and Havas Chairman Vincent Bollore began amassing shares of Aegis stock Bollore, the largest shareholder in Aegis Group, has tried in vein to push hand-picked representatives onto the Aegis board, but has been rejected multiple times.

Recently, Havas executives have been saying that they are far less interested and see less strategic value in rolling up with Aegis via a merger.

Past potential Aegis suitors have included Publicis Groupe, and WPP Group.

Lerwill's departure is the third high-profile exodus from Aegis this year, and follows former Aegis Media CEO Mainardo de Nardis, who recently landed as global head of OMD, and former Aegis Americas chief David Verklin, who left to run the cable industry's Canoe Ventures.

Aegis shares began trading this morning around 93 cents, down nearly 2% from Friday's closing.