Bottom Dollar

To its partners, Maxxcom seemed almost too good to be true. Maybe it was.

In a consolidating industry, Maxxcom was an alternative for growing agencies that were looking for capital but were reluctant to become lost in the ranks of the larger holding companies. It acted as a kind of arm’s-length banker and consultant to its 21 marketing-services partners, who were promised operational freedom in exchange for a healthy return on Maxxcom’s investment.

Its entrepreneurial spirit mirrored that of Miles Nadal, the 43-year-old Canadian business-school dropout who created Maxxcom parent MDC Corp.,