For Canadian Shop, Folding Is Hard to Do

In early November, Shorteno filed voluntary bankruptcy of Partenaires Grey, at which time the struggling agency claimed $1.37 million (U.S.) in liabilities, $940,000 in assets, and listed 178 creditors.
Though no one involved would comment for the record, apparently central to the firm’s demise is a disagreement over future severance payments to former Grey employees, a dispute that led Shorteno to start a motion to sue Grey for $860,000 just days before the bankruptcy declaration. At the time of the sale, according to a source familiar with the deal, Shorteno and Grey agreed that initially Grey would have liability for severance payments – which usually are much more generous in Canada than in the U.S.