Zentropy Partners
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zentropy Partners is the defunct name for an existing global internet professional services company headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. The company was founded in 1995 by Ryan Magnussen, shortly before the internet boom of the late 1990's.
The name "Zentropy" is a play on the words "Zen" (the doctrine that enlightenment can be obtained through direct intuitive insight) and "Entropy" (a measure of the amount of energy in a system that is available for work). Taken together, "Zentropy" is said to represent a concept of chaos becoming order, then becoming chaos once again. How this is to be inferred from the words zen and entropy, neither of which have to do with order or chaos in their literal senses, and what this has to do with internet development, is unclear. However, in an era where corporate names needed to be edgy and unusual sounding, the Zentropy moniker was thought to work well.
By 1998, Zentropy Partners had purchased and incorporated the advertising firms: Digital Café, Shandwick Interactive, and the French MDEO. In 1999, Zentropy Partners was purchased by the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG), which merged it with six of its other web companies in an attempt to create a leading digital advertising and web development and design entity. Interpublic Group operated Zentropy Partners within its McCann-Erickson WorldGroup division. At this time, several offices across the world took on the Zentropy branding, giving the Zentropy Partners subsidiary an international presence. Locations included Los Angeles, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid Minneapolis and Sydney.
From 1995 to 2003, as large corporations rushed to develop the online components of their organizations, Zentropy Partners facilitated the design and development of several large name internet sites. Their portfolio of clients included GM, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Unilever and Microsoft. In 2001, Zentropy Partners was named "New Media Agency of the Year" in the UK.
In May 2001, amongst an atmosphere of decreasing earnings and profits, IPG realigned many of its subdivisions and merged McCann Relationship Marketing with Zentropy Partners. At this time, the Zentropy name was discarded and the newly organized division began operating under the name MRM Partners Worldwide. The rise of the Zentropy branding followed by its abrupt and unexpected demise was not unusual for the era. Many large corporations developed internet-related divisions during this period, some of which survived and some of which were absorbed back into their parent companies.
MRM Worldwide continues to operate at 5700 Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles, CA. They are located within a few blocks of the famed Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the La Brea Tarpits.
