Razorfish

We reported way back in May that a handful of Razorfish offices were "going remote" and shutting down within a month. While that hasn't quite been the case, tipsters are telling us now that one of those locations--Fort Lauderdale--nevertheless took a hit. Susan Kidwell, VP, client services and head of Razorfish's South Florida location, apparently quit last week after 10 years with the agency, effectively leaving the branch "headless" as one spy put it.

While the Razorfish PR flack wouldn't officially comment and Kidwell didn't reply to emails, according to her Twitter page, this is in fact the real deal. On Monday, Kidwell wrote "very excited - been quiet as i consider the options the good Lord has put in front of me - resigned from @Razorfish last day will be Oct 16!"

Where this leaves the Fort Lauderdale office we don't know.

More: "Bob Lord's Getting Oral Love from Ad Pubs"

Did you hear Microsoft sold Razorfish to Publicis? Great. PaidContent and ClickZ, sites we usually think of as pretty hard-nosed, ran interviews with agency CEO Bob Lord. You can read 'em, but honestly the guy didn't say squat, making the respective posts come off...soft and sensual. He probably really enjoyed the experiences. Here's a list of the lamer questions he agreed to answer.

ClickZ
— Now that this deal has been inked, can you say frankly to what degree Razorfish has struggled to convince clients it's really unbiased when selling Microsoft properties?

— Razorfish joins a much larger family of agencies in the Vivaki unit. Do you think Vivaki has a recognition factor with advertisers?

— The money that Publicis pledged to spend with Microsoft — how much of that will be spent by Razorfish and how much by other agency units?

PaidContent
— What are the particular benefits to Razorfish of being part of a traditional ad holding company structure, as opposed to operating within Microsoft?

— What will the relationship with Digitas be like? Is there any room for collaboration? How do you complement what they have?

— Serious rumors about Microsoft's plans to sell Razorfish had been circulating for at least a year. How big a distraction was that for the agency? How did clients react to the rumors?

— As an independent agency within Publicis, will you still be able to make acquisitions? Or does being acquired mean that you don't have to worry about those kinds decisions?

Questions that should have been asked

— When will Razorfish learn about social media?

— Did you know that your employees are incredibly nervous about the merger?

— If I was thinking of hiring Razorfish, the idea of using Bing would make me throw up. Who wants to use a second rate search engine that was so second rate it had to be paired with another second rate search engine? It's not added value, it's crafty product integration by Microsoft — packaged in a way that makes it seem valuable.

— What does this mean for your Dell work?

And if you fine folks would like to add anything, feel free. Look, these questions sound a little vitriolic, sure. But that's only because the other questions he's been asked lately have been a complete waste of time. Except that they gave this story some fuel.

More: "Publicis Snags Razorfish for $530 Million"

In case you hadn't heard, Razorfish has appointed a new CEO. Bob Lord will take over as global CEO, moving up from eastern region president. He replaces Clark Kokich, who according to the internal memo we received, is becoming chairman of the company. FYI we pulled out our fav quotes and posted them below. Click continued to read the whole shmoopy thing.

— "...we have become invaluable trusted advisors to the most senior people within our client organizations. We finally have the 'seat at the table' we've been seeking for so long. So we are sitting on a tremendous opportunity."

— "...it's become clear that we will need to continue to evolve in order to succeed on this bigger and more competitive stage. We must rethink every aspect of our organization, starting at the top. "

— "We're no longer just building websites and launching online advertising campaigns. We truly are bringing ground-breaking ideas to clients — all of them realized in the digital world, but more and more spilling over into traditional channels as well."

— "I will continue to be involved in agency strategy decisions, but I'll be squarely focused on working with clients and teams to deliver transformational business ideas to clients. In addition, I'll continue my role as executive sponsor on some of our long-held clients, such as Microsoft, Best Buy, Disney, WeightWatchers, Nike, MillerCoors, and others. And of course I'll still be participating in new-business pitches where it makes sense."

— "We exhibit pockets of brilliance, but too often we are all working in a vacuum — not really understanding the great progress being made in other offices, and rarely able to leverage that success across the organization."

— "We need to learn to act as a true global team in order to serve global clients."

— "We have had no turnover in the senior leadership team, and we haven't brought in people from outside."

More: "Digital Is Traditional, Traditional Is Digital: Razorfish Goes 360"

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