The agency then issued a release to the media. The talks with Fahlgren might well pick up again. HMS has had discussions with its fellow Columbus shop over several years. And HMS has a history of successfully reviving failed mergers in the past. Mr. Binstock allowed that his own initial talks with Tim Tassone began more than a year before their agencies merged.
Merger talks almost always start out as casual feelers, a testing of the waters.
If not, we don't inform our staff. There are a lot of people we speak with and the merger opportunity never materializes. It starts philosophically, he said, then it moves to the type of clients the agencies have and the kinds of staff, and then onto issues of duplication and conflicts. If it is a fit, then communication starts at the management level to determine if the deal would make the agency a better company. Because we've gone through so many, our company is used to me standing up in the conference room saying where, when, whom, when it's serious, and what stage it's at.