Like many San Francisco agencies, the agency had many dotcom and technology based clients, and was hard hit when the business dried up.
The agency had at one time employed more than 50 staff with clients including EMC Corp., Inktomi, Qwest Communications and Keynote Software.
Both the president of the San Francisco office, Jim McGinn, and creative director, Stu Cooperrider, have held onto their jobs and will return to Arnold's Boston headquarters later this summer. The two only joined from Boston earlier this year in an effort to turn its dwindling fortunes around.
The closure of the advertising agency does not affect the Havas' San Francisco-based media and PR operations, Arnold MPG and Magnet.
Arnold is the 16th-largest agency in the U.S. with billings of $193.8m. It has offices in New York, McLean, Virginia., and St. Louis as well as its Boston headquarters. The San Francisco office was thought to have had billings of just $15m down from around $90m at the height of the dotcom boom in 2000.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .