According to reports, Saatchi & Saatchi will hold on to the General Mills work, after Saatchis' worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts and New York CEO Mary Baglivo met with General Mills to shore up the relationship.
Roberts has now issued a statement saying: "We have been assured by General Mills that they were completely unaware of this breakaway and that all the business is completely secure at Saatchi & Saatchi.
"We will be reviewing whether any of the 17 ex-colleagues have a role to play going forward. Every one of them individually has contacted us to discuss a possible return to the agency."
The drama began to unfold earlier in February when Mike Burns, vice-chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi and the worldwide account director on General Mills, left the agency suddenly.
His departure was followed by that of the group now dubbed the "Saatchi 17", who worked on General Mills' brands such as Cheerios, Green Giant and Wheaties.
It is believed that Interpublic Group, which also holds a large piece of General Mills business, was in discussions with the team about setting up a new agency to service the account.
Burns, who had been with the Publicis Groupe-owned agency for 25 years, was the joint chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi New York until last September.
However, Roberts hired executive creative director Tony Granger and Arnold Worldwide's Baglivo to take over the running of the agency, leaving Burns to step back to the role of managing the General Mills account.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .