The merger of Omnicom and Publicis will create the world’s largest advertising agency

A merger between France's Publicis and America's Omnicom has created the world's biggest marketing and advertising powerhouse, ending WPP's four-year dominance of the industry with an alliance vowing to hold its own against the digital media giants of Silicon Valley.

Billed as a “merger of equals”, the combination of the second largest marketing group, Omnicom, with its third place competitor Publicis will create a multinational with nearly 23billion USD in revenues and a stockmarket value of more than 35.1 billion USD.

Publicis Omnicom Group, as the holding company will be known, will have dual headquarters and listings in Paris and New York but will be registered in the Netherlands – for reasons of “neutrality” rather than any tax advantage, said Publicis chief executive Maurice Lévy. (tozsdeforum.hu)