According to the agency, the division has been discontinued because clients were getting most of their work done out of other centres like Mumbai Publicis Worldwide (PWW) has closed operations at one of its two divisions in Bangalore. The other one will remain operational, a Publicis spokesperson has confirmed to exchange4media. While industry insiders hinted at its lack of financial viability and impact due to the stress caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, the Publicis spokesperson denied the same and said that the development was not related to the COVID-19 crisis and had been already in process, well prior to the pandemic impacting India. “Publicis Worldwide (PWW) ran two divisions out of Bengaluru; one of which is being discontinued because the clients were getting most of their work done out of other centres such as Mumbai. The rest of the teams of Publicis Worldwide continue to operate out of Bengaluru. The focus and priority for Publicis Groupe across markets, all through COVID-19, has been to protect its workforce and we’ve ensured minimal impact to them; while at the same time, strengthening and supporting our client relationships,” said the spokesperson in an email to exchange4media. Furthermore, the spokesperson argued that the Bengaluru-based division that has been discontinued was an isolated agency unit measure and not a holding company-wide or an agency-wide one.