Pound foolish, shilling wise By Richard Morga

The sagas of WPP Group and Saatchi & Saatchi, which had been moving in lockstep since Martin Sorrell embarked both London-based institutions on a policy of buy high, h

Accounting for Saatchi’s posted loss was a $858-million write-down of goodwill. As his swan song, Saatchi’s outgoing chief, the Frenchman whom Wall Street calls “Dreyfthe-Hyph,” considered writing off all of Saatchi’s $1.2 billion in accumulated goodwill–an accounting construct that has nothing to do with the actual health of a company.
Over at WPP, meanwhile, ceo Sorrell, rather than write off the past, re-enacted it.