Omnicom, the largest advertising holding company in the world, created an off-balance-sheet entity, Seneca, in 2001 and sold to this entity sixteen of the companies Omnicom owned. Omnicom had paid $128 million for these companies but when the sale was made the companies were valued at $38.6 million. Did Omnicom lose money on the sale? It didn't think so as it did not record a loss and, apparently, its auditors, KPMG, agreed with them.
Seneca was housed in Omnicom offices. Omnicom employees ran Seneca. Seneca could not sell 'its' assets without Omnicom's permission. Did Omnicom control Seneca? Omnicom says no.
Is there such a concept as reality for the people who run Omnicom?
1 comment:
How can that possibly be legal, let alone moral?
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