The Interpublic Group of Companies once owned by than 20% of IconMedialab, which it bought into first with a $20m (£12.7m) stake at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999.
Interpublic's investments, like many agencies', proved disastrous -- alongside its investment in IconMedialab it also bought into MarchFirst, which collapsed. In all, Interpublic is thought to have lost more than $160m on its internet investments.
Today it confirmed it had sold back the remaining 14.7m shares it held in IconMedialab for an undisclosed sum.
Earlier this week it was reported that Interpublic missed earnings-per-share targets by a long way after revealing that charges over improperly booked revenues jumped to as much as $181.3m (£114.3m), almost three times as much as originally stated.
The Interpublic shares were bought by the combined board of IconMedialab and Lost Boys, with which Icon merged in January last year. Robert Pickering, CEO of IconMedialab/Lost Boys, along with board members Jesper Jos Olsson and Fred Mulder, acquired approximately 40% of the shares, while the remaining shares were acquired by financial investors.
Like many new-media companies, IconMedialab saw its profits collapse as the dotcom boom turn to bust. Last year, it was suspended from the stock exchange in Stockholm as it scrambled to secure extra financing. The company has seen its shares plunge more than 98% since their peak in early 2000.
The company cut hundreds of staff, with around 500 losing their jobs last year, in an attempt to get out of trouble as it racked up losses of £170m in 2000.
The company had already sold its BrandLab assets in London, Stockholm and Berlin to FutureBrand, a subsidiary of Interpublic.
Interpublic's exit from IconMedialab matches a move by its US rival Omnicom. Omnicom found itself in trouble earlier this year as it set up a new company called Seneca, along with a private equity firm, to house its internet assets, which include Agency.com, Organic and Razorfish.
At the time it bought its stake, former Interpublic chairman and chief executive office Philip Geier presciently said: "People don't change anything like as fast as technology. The theorists may like revolutions. Consumers prefer evolutions and guess who makes the final call?"
Geier stepped down in 2000 and was replaced by John Dooner.
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