IPG's Offer Goes From 'Curious' To Doable

Interpublic Group’s new CFO, Frank Mergenthaler, doesn’t underestimate the obstacles to righting the struggling company, chief among them weak financial controls, a lingering Securities & Exchange Commission investigation into accounting problems and the delinquent reporting of results.

“IPG has got huge challenges,” acknowledged Mergenthaler, who most recently was CFO at Random House. “It’s going to be hard work.”

The 44-year-old New Jersey native did thorough due diligence before signing on—talking to top officers, agency CEOs, board members, even IPG’s outside accountants—but said his first meeting with Michael Roth influenced his decision to accept the offer as much as all the research.

That meeting was scheduled to last a half-hour but turned into a free-flowing, 90-minute back-and-forth on the state of the $6.2