According to inside sources, staff at the London office are waiting today to hear who will lose their jobs. About 50 jobs are expected to go.
Agency.com's global restructuring plan involves cutting about 350 jobs worldwide, including 275 "billable consultants". Sources say that London is taking the brunt of the cuts in Europe, while Amsterdam and Paris are expected to emerge unscathed. The Copenhagen office is restructuring to become purely interactive TV-focused.
The agency has not released details of where the cuts will come in the US, but it is understood that either the Dallas or the San Francisco office could face closure.
The news came as the company reported a first-quarter net loss before amortisation of intangibles and non-cash compensation of $4.7m (£3.31m), compared with cash net income of $593,000 (£418,047) in the first quarter of 2000.
The company also announced that chairman and CEO Chan Suh and co-founder Kyle Shannon have agreed to sell their shares to Seneca, the new holding company being formed by Omnicom and Pegasus Partners II LP. The sale will increase Seneca's stake in Agency.com to 65.7% from 45.3%.
Suh said, "This has been a difficult market for interactive services companies. We delivered relatively strong results during a time of increasing uncertainty in our industry, but the fact remains that the demand environment is challenging in the near-term. While we believe that we have positioned the company for long-term success due to the strength of our model and management team, we feel it is necessary to take additional steps to return the company to profitability."