1 If a hostile predator emerges for Saatchi & Saatchi Co., co-founders Charles and Maurice Saatchi will lead a management buy-out attempt, an official close to the company said.
2 Financing for any takeover attempt may be problematic in the wake of Friday's stock-market sell-off in New York and turmoil in the junk-bond market.
3 But the beleaguered British advertising and consulting giant, which last week named a new chief executive officer to replace Maurice Saatchi, has been the subject of intense takeover speculation for weeks.
4 Last week, Saatchi's largest shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it had been approached by one or more third parties interested in a possible restructuring.
5 And Carl Spielvogel, chief executive officer of Saatchi's big Backer Spielvogel Bates advertising unit, said he had offered to lead a management buy-out of the company, but was rebuffed by Charles Saatchi.
6 Mr. Spielvogel said he wouldn't launch a hostile bid.
7 The executive close to Saatchi & Saatchi said that 'if a bidder came up with a ludicrously high offer, a crazy offer which Saatchi knew it couldn't beat, it would have no choice but to recommend it to shareholders.
8 But {otherwise} it would undoubtedly come back' with an offer by management.
9 The executive said any buy-out would be led by the current board, whose chairman is Maurice Saatchi and whose strategic guiding force is believed to be Charles Saatchi.
10 Mr. Spielvogel isn't part of the board, nor are any of the other heads of Saatchi's big U.S.-based ad agencies.
11 The executive didn't name any price, but securities analysts have said Saatchi would fetch upward of $1.3 billion.
12 The executive denied speculation that Saatchi was bringing in the new chief executive officer only to clean up the company financially so that the brothers could lead a buy-back.
13 That speculation abounded Friday as industry executives analyzed the appointment of the new chief executive, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who joins Saatchi and becomes a member of its board on Jan. 1.
14 Mr. Louis-Dreyfus, formerly chief executive of the pharmaceutical research firm IMS International Inc., has a reputation as a savvy financial manager, and will be charged largely with repairing Saatchi's poor financial state.
15 Asked about the speculation that Mr. Louis-Dreyfus has been hired to pave the way for a buy-out by the brothers, the executive replied, 'That isn't the reason Dreyfus has been brought in.
16 He was brought in to turn around the company.'
17 Separately, several Saatchi agency clients said they believe the company's management shakeup will have little affect on them.
18 'It hasn't had any impact on us, nor do we expect it to,' said a spokeswoman for Miller Brewing Co., a major client of Backer Spielvogel.
19 John Lampe, director of advertising at PaineWebber Inc., a Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising client, said: 'We have no problem with the announcement, because we don't know what change it's going to bring about.
20 We aren't going to change agencies because of a change in London.'
21 Executives at Backer Spielvogel client Avis Inc., as well as at Saatchi client Philips Lighting Co., also said they saw no effect.
22 Executives at Prudential-Bache Securities Inc., a Backer Spielvogel client that is reviewing its account, declined comment.
23 Mr. Spielvogel had said that Prudential-Bache was prepared to finance either a management buy-out and restructuring, or a buy-out of Backer Spielvogel alone, led by him.
24 Ad Notes. . . .
25 NEW ACCOUNT: California's Glendale Federal Bank awarded its $12 million to $15 million account to the Los Angeles office of Omnicom Group's BBDO agency.
26 The account was previously handled by Davis, Ball & Colombatto Advertising Inc., a Los Angeles agency.
27 ACCOUNT REVIEW: Royal Crown Cola Co. has ended its relationship with the Boston office of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos.
28 The account had billed about $6 million in 1988, according to Leading National Advertisers.
29 NOT-GUILTY PLEA: As expected, Young & Rubicam Inc. along with two senior executives and a former employee, pleaded not guilty in federal court in New Haven, Conn., to conspiracy and racketeering charges.
30 The government has charged that they bribed Jamaican officials to win the Jamaica Tourist Board ad account in 1981.
31 A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office said extradition proceedings are 'just beginning' for the other two defendants in the case, Eric Anthony Abrahams, former Jamaican tourism minister, and Jamaican businessman Arnold Foote Jr.
32 KOREAN AGENCY: The Samsung Group and Bozell Inc. agreed to establish a joint venture advertising agency in South Korea.
33 Bozell Cheil Corp., as the new agency will be called, will be based in Seoul and is 70% owned by Samsung and 30% owned by Bozell.
34 Samsung already owns Korea First Advertising Co., that country's largest agency.
35 Bozell joins Backer Spielvogel Bates and Ogilvy Group as U.S. agencies with interests in Korean agencies.

But the beleaguered British advertising and consulting giant , which last week named a new chief executive officer to replace Maurice Saatchi , has been the subject of intense takeover speculation for weeks .
to replace Maurice Saatchi ,
Why is Maurice Saatchi being replaced?