After 44 years of being in operations, well-known ad agency Adcom was asked to stop its business by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) following their inability to pay $1 million worth of debts.
It’s no surprise that SPH-owned newspaper The Straits Times covered the issue, but it looks like one of Singapore’s biggest publications is in some hot water as it might have given readers a wrong impression.
Adam Khoo Rebukes The Straits Times’ Claims
The Straits Times’ article about Adcom which appeared on the 24th of September is now being corrected publicly by Adam Khoo, the son of Adcom’s founder, Vince Khoo.
The reason? Carelessly naming him as the company’s owner and ruining his reputation.
The article states that the younger Khoo, a well-known entrepreneur, also owns Adcom with his father. However, Adam, better known as the founder of Adam Khoo’s Learning Technologies is rebuking this statement.
On a Facebook post, Khoo posted that although ST knows that he doesn’t own or run Adcom, they still decided to make the claims as such.
Reasons Behind Adcom’s Problems
In the article, it states that Adcom had breached a contract signed with SPH in regards to payments of published advertisements by the latter. Under the agreement, Adcom is to make payment to SPH within 45 days after receiving their services.
Khoo explains how the company ended up in such a situation—attaining debts that total to about a million dollars.
He further illustrates the reason behind his father trying to keep the company alive, crediting it to his loyalty to his employees—many of whom have been with him for ages.
Facebook Comments On The Issue
Khoo’s Facebook post garnered attention from many Singaporeans, resulting in over 600 likes and 64 shares (at time of writing). The explanation as to why and how Adcom incurred so much losses received a few supportive comments, mostly from his students.
However, the rest of the comments were not so positive.
Some reminded Khoo that there are always risks involved with business:
While some even said in disbelief that it’s ridiculous that someone as wealthy as him isn’t able to pay off the debts:
As of yet, The Straits Times has not issued any statement regarding the comments made by Adam Khoo, and no updates to the article have been made.
What do you think of the situation? Let us know.
Feature image credit: value-entreprenur.blogspot.com
