. Segment Information

The Company determines an operating segment if a component (i) engages in business activities from which it earns revenues and incurs expenses, (ii) has discrete financial information, and is (iii) regularly reviewed by the Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”) to make decisions regarding resource allocation for the segment and assess its performance. Effective January 1, 2019, the Executive Committee assumed the role and responsibilities of the Chief Executive Officer until the appointment of a successor which occurred on March 18, 2019. See Note 1 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included herein for additional information. Once operating segments are identified, the Company performs an analysis to determine if aggregation of operating segments is applicable. This determination is based upon a quantitative analysis of the expected and historic average long-term profitability for each operating segment, together with a qualitative assessment to determine if operating segments have similar operating characteristics.

Due to changes in the Company’s internal management and reporting structure during 2018, reportable segment results for 2017 and prior periods presented have been recast to reflect the reclassification of certain businesses between segments. The changes were as follows:


•	Source Marketing, previously within the All Other category, was included within the Doner operating segment, which is aggregated into the Global Integrated Agencies reportable segment;


•	Yamamoto, previously within the All Other category, was operationally merged with Civilian and is now included within the Domestic Creative Agencies reportable segment;


•	Bruce Mau Design, Hello Design and Northstar Research Partners, previously within the All Other category, and Varick Media Management, previously within the Media Services reportable segment, were included into a newly-formed operating segment, Yes & Company, which is aggregated within the Media Services reportable segment.

Also in 2018, Forsman & Bodenfors and kbs+, both within the Global Integrated Agencies reportable segment, merged under the Forsman & Bodenfors name.

The four reportable segments that result from applying the aggregation criteria are as follows: “Global Integrated Agencies”; “Domestic Creative Agencies”; “Specialist Communications”; and “Media Services.” In addition, the Company combines and discloses those operating segments that do not meet the aggregation criteria as “All Other.” The Company also reports corporate expenses, as further detailed below, as “Corporate.”

•

The Global Integrated Agencies reportable segment is comprised of the Company’s five global, integrated operating segments (72andSunny, Anomaly, Crispin Porter Bogusky, Doner and Forsman & Bodenfors) serving multinational clients around the world. These operating segments share similar characteristics related to (i) the nature of their services; (ii) the type of global clients and the methods used to provide services; and (iii) the extent to which they may be impacted by global economic and geopolitical risks. In addition, these operating segments compete with each other for new business and from time to time have business move between them. The Company believes the historic and expected average long-term profitability is similar among the operating segments aggregated in the Global Integrated Agencies reportable segment.

The operating segments within the Global Integrated Agencies reportable segment provides a range of different services for its clients, including strategy, creative and production for advertising campaigns across a variety of platforms (print, digital, social media, television broadcast).

•

The Domestic Creative Agencies reportable segment is comprised of five operating segments that are national advertising agencies (Colle + McVoy, Laird + Partners, Mono Advertising, Union and Yamamoto) leveraging creative capabilities at their core. These operating segments share similar characteristics related to (i) the nature of their services; (ii) the type of domestic client accounts and the methods used to provide services; and (iii) the extent to which they may be impacted by domestic economic and policy factors within North America. In addition, these operating segments compete with each other for new business and from time to time have business move between them. The Company believes the historic and expected average long-term profitability is similar among the operating segments aggregated in the Domestic Creative Agencies reportable segment.

The operating segments within the Domestic Creative Agencies reportable segment provide similar services as the Global Integrated Agencies.

•

The Specialist Communications reportable segment is comprised of five operating segments that are each communications agencies (Allison & Partners, HL Group Partners, Hunter PR, KWT Global (formerly Kwittken), and Veritas) with core service offerings in public relations and related communications services. These operating segments share similar characteristics related to (i) the nature of their services; (ii) the type of client accounts and the methods used to provide services; (iii) the extent to which they may be impacted by domestic economic and policy factors within North America; and (iv) the regulatory environment regarding public relations and social media. In addition, these operating segments compete with each other for new business and from time to time have business move between them. The Company believes the historic and expected average long-term profitability is similar among the operating segments aggregated in the Specialist Communications reportable segment.

The operating segments within the Specialist Communications reportable segment provide public relations and communications services including strategy, editorial, crisis support or issues management, media training, influencer engagement, and events management.


•	The Media Services reportable segment is comprised of two operating segments (MDC Media Partners and Yes & Company). These operating segments perform media buying and planning as their core competency across a range of platforms (out-of-home, paid search, social media, lead generation, programmatic, television broadcast).

•

All Other consists of the Company’s remaining operating segments that provide a range of diverse marketing communication services, but generally do not have similar services offerings or financial characteristics as those aggregated in the reportable segments. The All Other category includes 6Degrees Communications, Concentric Partners, Gale Partners, Kenna, Kingsdale, Instrument, Redscout, Relevent, Team, Vitro, and Y Media Labs. The nature of the specialist services provided by these operating segments vary among each other and from those operating segments aggregated into the reportable segments. This results in these operating segments having current and long-term performance expectations inconsistent with those operating segments aggregated in the reportable segments. The operating segments within All Other provide a range of diverse marketing communication services, including application and website design and development, data and analytics, experiential marketing, customer research management, creative services, and branding.

•

Corporate consists of corporate office expenses incurred in connection with the strategic resources provided to the operating segments, as well as certain other centrally managed expenses that are not fully allocated to the operating segments. These office and general expenses include (i) salaries and related expenses for corporate office employees, including employees dedicated to supporting the operating segments, (ii) occupancy expenses relating to properties occupied by all corporate office employees, (iii) other office and general expenses including professional fees for the financial statement audits and other public company costs, and (iv) certain other professional fees managed by the corporate office. Additional expenses managed by the corporate office that are directly related to the operating segments are allocated to the appropriate reportable segment and the All Other category.



	Years Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016
Revenue:
Global Integrated Agencies	$	698,872		$	797,347		$	712,793
Domestic Creative Agencies	102,063			104,417			97,199
Specialist Communications	179,065			172,565			170,285
Media Services	140,753			166,216			157,696
All Other	355,450			273,234			247,812
Total	$	1,476,203		$	1,513,779		$	1,385,785

Segment operating income (loss):
Global Integrated Agencies	$	44,868		$	71,857		$	59,193
Domestic Creative Agencies	18,552			19,333			18,089
Specialist Communications	18,629			20,728			1,940
Media Services	(51,196		)	13,126			5,554
All Other	34,000			47,771			7,773
Corporate	(55,157		)	(40,856		)	(44,118		)
Total	$	9,696		$	131,959		$	48,431

Other Income (Expense):
Interest expense and finance charges, net	(67,075		)	(64,364		)	(65,050		)
Foreign exchange transaction gain (loss)	(23,258		)	18,137			(213		)
Loss on redemption of Notes	—			—			(33,298		)
Other, net	230			1,346			414
Income (loss) before income taxes and equity in earnings (losses) of non-consolidated affiliates	(80,407		)	87,078			(49,716		)
Income tax expense (benefit)	31,603			(168,064		)	(9,404		)
Income (loss) before equity in earnings (losses) of non-consolidated affiliates	(112,010		)	255,142			(40,312		)
Equity in earnings (losses) of non-consolidated affiliates	62			2,081			(309		)
Net income (loss)	(111,948		)	257,223			(40,621		)
Net income attributable to the noncontrolling interest	(11,785		)	(15,375		)	(5,218		)
Net income (loss) attributable to MDC Partners Inc.	$	(123,733	)	$	241,848		$	(45,839	)



	Years Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016
Depreciation and amortization:
Global Integrated Agencies	$	23,571	$	23,831	$	21,555
Domestic Creative Agencies	1,583		1,582		1,811
Specialist Communications	4,252		4,714		6,637
Media Services	3,119		4,052		6,091
All Other	12,909		8,197		8,768
Corporate	762		1,098		1,584
Total	$	46,196	$	43,474	$	46,446

Stock-based compensation:
Global Integrated Agencies	$	8,521	$	15,225	$	12,177
Domestic Creative Agencies	1,100		887		651
Specialist Communications	714		2,954		3,629
Media Services	318		656		318
All Other	3,104		2,494		1,703
Corporate	4,659		2,134		2,525
Total	$	18,416	$	24,350	$	21,003

Capital expenditures:
Global Integrated Agencies	$	10,088	$	20,760	$	16,486
Domestic Creative Agencies	951		1,168		1,153
Specialist Communications	3,618		1,288		2,741
Media Services	966		3,842		5,266
All Other	4,574		5,877		3,753
Corporate	67		23		33
Total	$	20,264	$	32,958	$	29,432

A summary of the Company’s long-lived assets, comprised of fixed assets, goodwill and intangibles, net, by geographic region at December 31, is set forth in the following table.



	United States		Canada		Other		Total
Long-lived Assets
2018	$	76,781	$	4,779	$	6,629	$	88,189
2017	$	77,163	$	5,638	$	7,505	$	90,306
Goodwill and Intangible Assets
2018	$	679,344	$	61,748	$	67,628	$	808,720
2017	$	706,241	$	127,014	$	73,285	$	906,540

The Company’s CODM does not use segment assets to allocate resources or to assess performance of the segments and therefore, total segment assets have not been disclosed.

A summary of the Company’s revenue by geographic region at December 31 is set forth in the following table.



	United States		Canada		Other		Total
Revenue:
2018	$	1,153,192	$	124,000	$	199,011	$	1,476,203
2017	$	1,172,364	$	123,092	$	218,323	$	1,513,779
2016	$	1,103,714	$	124,101	$	157,970	$	1,385,785