| Company | Agency.com |
| Date Announced | 8/11/1999 |
| Site | 20 Exchange Place |
| Total Subsidy | $2.7 million |
|
??? |
| Promised Job Creation | ??? |
| Promised Job Retention | 249 |
| Length of Contract | 15 years |
| Competing Sites | N.J. |
| Conditions | none |
| Notes | This deal is a good example of the "me too" phenomenon. When DoubleClick, the world's largest internet advertising company received its $4.8 million subsidy in February 1999, Agency.com's CEO Chan Suh began to publicly ask for similar treatment. Art Williams, Executive Vice-President, was hopeful about maintaining a New York address. "We’re optimistic the city will do something for us," says Mr. Williams. (Mark Walsh, Crain's New York Business, 2/22/99) In December 2000, Agency.com announced that it would lay off 190 workers, an undisclosed number of those were from the New York corporate headquarters. |
| Corporate Notes | Founded in 1995, Agency.com is an interactive marketing firm. In January 2000, CEO Suh was named to Senator Chuck Schumer's Group of Thirty panel. The panel chaired by the senator includes well-known New York business executives including Gerald Levin, chairman of Time-Warner; Kevin O’Connor, CEO of DoubleClick and Bill Harrison, CEO of Chase Manhattan, all of which have received subsidies. The panel was formed out of Senator Schumer's concern that the lack of available Manhattan real estate could restrain economic growth by forcing new media, biotech, and financial services firms to leave the city when they need to expand. |
| Critics | |
| A
note on sources -- or why many of these profiles appear incomplete.
They are. Good Jobs New York compiled the numbers in these profiles from
press releases and news accounts of the deals. Unfortunately, more
detailed information on these subsidies is very difficult to obtain --
even though it should be readily available to the public. In many cases,
neither the company nor the city nor state released certain information,
particularly the terms of the agreement, i.e., the conditions which the
company had to meet in order to receive the subsidy. It should also be
noted that the value of the subsidy may not end up being equal to the
value estimated at the time of the agreement. And it should not be assumed
that the actual number of jobs retained and created will be the same as
the numbers predicted.
Because the public deserves easy access to information about how taxpayer dollars are being spent, Good Jobs New York will update these profiles as we uncover more information. Good Jobs New York - May 25, 2001 |
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