MacManus Group Intends To Form New Media Giant

NEW YORK-The MacManus Group is planning to combine select media operations currently within D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, N.W. Ayer & Partners and TeleVest into one independent MacManus unit.
The goal of the proposed consolidation, said Roy Bostock, chairman and chief executive of MacManus, will be to create one of the top three media entities in the world, rivaling organizations such as Zenith and Carat. A task force will “put into writing a plan that we would start implementing in January 1999,” said Bostock.
The task force will consider which media operations will be affected, how to handle client conflicts, key executive appointments, and whether the entity will be an expansion of TeleVest or take a new name.