Publicis and Omnicom, two of the biggest advertising and marketing agencies in the world, have joined together in a “merger of equals,” working together to create the world’s largest advertising agency. The deal will bring $22.7 billion in annual revenues and $35.1 billion in market capitalization to form an enormous business venture. The company is set to be headquartered in both New York and Paris, with CEO John Wren of Omnicom and CEO Maurice Levy from Publicis running the show.
“For many years, we have had great respect for one another as well as for the companies we each lead. This respect has grown in the past few months as we have worked to make this a combination a reality. We look forward to co-leading the combined company and are excited about what our people can achieve together for our clients and our shareholders,” said the CEO’s in a joint statement.
There are still client conflicts that could come as a result of the merger, as some big-name rivals actually work for these agencies. For instance, Pepsi is an Omnicom account, while Leo Burnett, a Publicis company, holds Coca-Cola. There’s no word yet on how the mega-company intends to iron these out.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of effect this has on the tech industry – and video games – as several clients are likely to be under the Omnicom/Publicis umbrella. We’ll see how it all plays out in the months ahead.
Source: TechCrunch
