IAC Group Merges With Machado García-Serra.

Machado/Garcia-Serra Publicidad (MGSP) and The IAC Group (IAC) announced their recent merger to form Machado/Garcia-Serra LLC (MGS). Estimated combined billings for 2004 will exceed $45 million.

The announcement was made jointly by Ana Maria Fernandez-Haar, founding CEO of IAC, and Manuel E. Machado, CEO and Al Garcia-Serra, COO, founding partners of MGSP. The newly formed MGS will be under the leadership of partners Machado, Co-Chairman and CEO and Garcia-Serra, Co-Chairman and COO. Fernandez-Haar will retain an equity interest and will serve as Chairman Emeritus. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Gabriela Alcantara-Diaz, formerly Executive Vice President of The IAC Group joins the new company’s management team as a principal and EVP. Alcantara-Diaz will be responsible for strengthening and guiding MGS’s core business and evaluating potential growth opportunities. She will also have a key role in the transition of the two companies.

“In determining succession, it was important to me that the company I founded remain Hispanic-owned and independent. I have known Al Garcia-Serra for more than thirty years and Manny Machado for more than a decade. They are the ideal combination of talent, results-driven management, competence and a clear vision of the future,” Fernandez-Haar noted. “Moreover, their commitment to excellence in all relationships with clients, staff and suppliers mirrors that of IAC. Our clients and staff could not have better leadership.”

Manny Machado, who presides over the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA), the industry’s most important national voice, said, “In today’s dynamic environment, independent Hispanic agencies offer clients unequalled value: new profitable Latino consumers, cost-effective delivery with single-minded focus, living knowledge of the language and culture, and perhaps most important, an obvious passion for what we do. This larger, stronger company will make history.”

In assessing market potential, Garcia-Serra added, “The Hispanic market’s explosive growth is projected to continue well into the next century and Spanish and bilingual marketing communications will drive much of that growth across all industry sectors. This is an extraordinary profit-opportunity for our clients, our industry and our agency in particular. We have an extraordinary platform and are exceptionally well positioned – and capitalized – for unprecedented growth.”

Felicidades !!!!!!!