The past, present and future of the Omnicom-IPG acquisition

The advertising world was fundamentally reshaped on November 26, 2025, with the successful closure of Omnicom Group Inc.'s acquisition of The Interpublic Group (IPG). Valued at approximately $13.5 billion, the expanded Omnicom is the world's largest advertising holding company with combined annual revenue approaching $25 billion. The strategic focus was clear: financial efficiency, targeting an ambitious $750 million in annual cost synergies.

The acquisition plan was first publicly unveiled in December 2024, leading up to the closure on November 26, 2025.

Leadership changes

The post-merger leadership structure was designed for streamlined accountability. John Wren (Omnicom) remained in command, maintaining strategic control, assuming the Chairman and CEO role.

Both Philippe Krakowsky (former IPG CEO) and Daryl Simm (Omnicom veteran) were appointed as Co-President and COO. This role was assigned to ensure operational oversight during the integration while keeping ultimate direction with the agency’s leadership.

Long-time Omnicom executives were placed in charge of major divisions, including Omnicom Advertising (Creative) led by Troy Ruhanen, Omnicom Media (OMG) by Florian Adamski and OmniPlus and Flywheel Commerce Network (Technology/Data) to be led by Duncan Painter.

The structural change in the Indian context was immediate and clear; the local entity name was changed from Omnicom Advertising Services to Omnicom Advertising India to reflect the new, streamlined creative focus under the global Omnicom Advertising division.

On the India front, Prasoon Joshi has been named as the Chairman to lead the new restructured entity.

Additionally, Aditya Kanthy has been named President and Managing Director at the agency, marking one of the first senior appointments announced under the company’s new structure.

Subramanyeswar, known as Subbu, Group CEO of MullenLowe Lintas Group India, is expected to take on the role of Chief Strategy Officer at Omnicom Advertising India, according to media reports.

Shashi Sinha has been appointed Strategic Advisor, and Amardeep Singh has been named as the Chief Operating Officer of Omnicom in India.

Kartik Sharma has been appointed CEO of Omnicom Media India as the group undertakes one of the largest restructurings in its history following its $13 billion acquisition of IPG.

Other changes

The integration strategy, focused on margin preservation and leveraging the Omni data platform, involved swift and decisive actions to eliminate redundancy.

The acquisition triggered immediate and visible corporate identity changes. The IPG corporate entity was eliminated, including the dissolution of the entire IPG Mediabrands network. IPG Health was immediately rebranded as Omnicom Health.

Omnicom shifted its online presence to omc.com on December 1 after acquiring IPG, with all updates now on the new site and IPG’s domain redirecting. Earlier, IPG in the last week updated its global homepage to reflect its merger with Omnicom, introducing a visual identity that reads ‘Omnicom + IPG.’ 

The service portfolio was restructured under the Omnicom banner, with divisions delineated: Omnicom Advertising replaced the separate creative network identities that had operated under IPG.

The new Omnicom corporate website was swiftly updated to confirm the consolidation. The site removed legacy brands such as DDB, FCB, and MullenLowe from the creative division listings, confirming their retirement.

The path to acquisition

The path to acquisition was said to be marked by financial pressure on IPG. In the year preceding the deal's closure, the agency was actively executing large-scale restructuring.

2024 was recorded as a difficult year, with the agency expecting an organic revenue decline of 1% to 2%, according to CEO Philippe Krakowsky. He said the agency also missed its 2024 forecast.

The agency reported a 5.1% year-on-year revenue decline in Q3 2025, though profits rose through cost-cutting measures. The agency reduced approximately 800 employees and vacated around 135,000 square feet of office space. Consolidated organic revenue fell 2.9%, driven by net client losses and decreased domestic revenues of 1.5%, primarily in sports marketing, digital offerings, and data analytics businesses.

On the operational front, the agency also eliminated 3200 roles in November, following the 2400 job cuts in the first half of 2025 alone, alongside significant reductions in office space.

These pre-merger actions seem to have indicated IPG was managing structural costs and operational complexity, likely in preparation for the acquisition.

The foundational motivation for the acquisition was overwhelmingly financial and structural, driven by a need for margin preservation against client fee compression and the imperative to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) through platforms like Omni.

The acquisition timeline

By early 2025, both agencies began notifying regulators and entering pre-filing consultations to prepare the ground for a multi-jurisdictional review. In March, the agencies announced that their respective stockholders approved Omnicom’s previously announced acquisition of Interpublic at each agency’s meeting of stockholders.

Approvals began to arrive in stages, each representing an important step towards the finish line. 

However, not every jurisdiction moved as quickly. The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority opened a deeper investigation in mid-2025 to assess whether the merger could harm competition in a market already concentrated among a small number of global holding networks.

This examination reflected broader concerns that the consolidation of two giants might reduce client choice or raise switching costs for advertisers who rely on specific network capabilities.

The Federal Trade Commission eventually allowed the merger to proceed but introduced specific conditions that focused on future conduct.

Through the summer and autumn of 2025, the companies collected clearances from multiple other markets. Yet the most consequential decision was always going to come from the European Commission.

The EU's review was very important because of how big and varied the European advertising market is, and any changes they required could have significantly changed how the merged company was set up.

After months of submissions, market testing and consultations, the Commission has now granted an unconditional approval. This was the final and most important regulatory hurdle, clearing the path for completion.

With the EU approval, the last operational steps are expected to move swiftly. 

Contrast with OPUS failure

The success of the Omnicom-IPG acquisition stands in sharp contrast to the failed 2014 Publicis-Omnicom (OPUS) merger, which collapsed.

OPUS was a $35 billion ‘merger of equals’ with shareholders holding 50% each. The co-CEO structure led to an immediate ‘power struggle’ when Omnicom’s John Wren and Publicis’ Maurice Lévy were supposed to serve in joint leadership for 30 months pre-acquisition.

The Omnicom-IPG deal avoided these pitfalls by being an unambiguous acquisition, granting Omnicom shareholders 60.6% of the combined equity and giving John Wren definitive control, allowing for rapid, top-down decision-making.

The retired and retained

The integration was defined by the elimination of brand overlap to meet the high synergy target. The most symbolically significant action was the retirement of multiple globally recognised agency brands, prioritising consolidated services:

DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach), the agency behind the iconic 1960 Volkswagen print ad is now retired as a standalone entity and absorbed into the TBWA network.

FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding), the agency that created the 100-day campaign for Oreo's 100th anniversary, has retired as a standalone entity and has been folded into the BBDO network.

MullenLowe has been retired as a standalone entity and absorbed into the TBWA network.

The creative portfolio is now concentrated around three core global networks: Omnicom’s BBDO and TBWA, and IPG’s McCann.

Media and PR consolidation

The corporate umbrella brand, IPG Mediabrands, was eliminated, and its media assets were integrated into Omnicom Media Group (OMG). It now became the world's largest media buying organisation, unifying Omnicom’s OMD, PHD, and Hearts & Science with IPG’s media assets: UM, Initiative, and Mediahub.

IPG’s consultancies, Golin and Weber Shandwick, were integrated into Omnicom’s existing network (FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, Porter Novelli).

The retention of former IPG Health CEO Dana Maiman to run the newly restructured Omnicom Health division was the most significant retention of IPG executive talent at a divisional CEO level. This confirms the specialised, high-margin healthcare communications sector was deemed too strategically important to be absorbed or replaced.

The human cost

The pursuit of the $750 million synergy target led to extensive job cuts. Omnicom confirmed post-merger layoffs exceeding 4,000 jobs globally.

These cuts were layered on top of the 3,200 roles IPG and 3,000 roles Omnicom had cut the previous year, bringing the total reduction across the combining entities to over 10,000 roles in two years.

What this means for the industry

The Omnicom-IPG acquisition marks a fundamental shift in how advertising holding companies define value. The retirement of iconic agency names like DDB, FCB, and MullenLowe, brands with decades of creative legacy, signals that the industry's currency is no longer creative reputation but operational scale and technological efficiency.

Efficiency over creativity

The merger centres on replacing human processing with technological power, particularly through Artificial Intelligence and Omnicom's proprietary Omni platform. AI serves as the efficiency engine designed to eliminate overlapping back-office functions and redundant roles, the foundation of the $750 million annual cost synergy target.

Clients stand to benefit from deeper data pools, AI-powered planning systems, and enhanced leverage in media negotiations. However, the strategic challenge is balancing massive scale with nimbleness. The consolidated structure risks appearing overly bureaucratic, potentially alienating brands seeking agile, culture-focused creative services.

The acquisition reshapes competitive dynamics. WPP and Publicis might face pressure to intensify their own efficiency strategies.

Independent agencies may find opportunities offering specialised services that large networks cannot deliver with the same speed.

Regulators and large advertisers will closely monitor whether such concentration limits choice or weakens competition. The unprecedented FTC conduct restrictions reflect growing concern about how corporate scale translates into market influence.

The deal accelerates broader consolidation, pointing toward a future where only a few hyper-scaled players remain dominant. In modern advertising, scale and technological capability now define competitive advantage more decisively than creative legacy. The industry's most sought-after professionals may increasingly be data scientists and technologists rather than traditional creative directors.