World's largest marketing giant to be formed - USD 35.1 billion Publicis Omnicom Group
USA's marketing firm Omnicom and France's Publicis have announced a merger to form the world's biggest advertising company worth USD 35.1 billion. Omnicom CEO John Wren and his counterpart at Publicis, Maurice Levy, are to run the new company together.
Each firm's shareholders will hold about 50-percent stake in the new Publicis Omnicom Group. Publicis Groupe shareholders will receive one share of the new Publicis Omnicom Group for each Publicis share they own and a special dividend of 1 euro per share. Omnicom shareholders will receive 0.813 shares of Publicis Omnicom Group for each Omnicom share they own, together with a special dividend of USD 2 per share, plus quarterly dividend payments.
The firm will be listed in Paris and New York and will employ more than 130,000 people. The merger is expected to be finalized by March 2014, BBC reports.
The merger of these two large marketing companies may result in a reduced competition in that market, and another problem could be a conflict between clients.
Among the clients of the future company are Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, McDonald's, Yum Brands, the owner of the KFC brand, Taco Bell, etc.
As of today, Publicis Omnicom Group is comprised of world-renowned marketing agencies such as Leo Burnett, BBDO, Saatchi&Saatchi, DDB, TBWA, Publicis Worldwide, Ketchum, StarcomMediaVest, OMD, BBH, MSLGROUP, ZenithOptimedia, and many others...