Advertising giants appeal to EU regulators to grant merger
Advertising companies Omnicom and Publicis have urged European Union (EU) regulators to approve their $31bn (£22bn) merger. Omnicom and Publicis are the world's second and third largest advertising firms respectively, as such they will need to clear the hurdles of EU antitrust laws before proceeding with the deal.
The merger agreed in July has been given regulatory approval in the US, South Korea, India as well as a host of other countries leaving the EU and Russia as the primary roadblocks delaying the agreement.
The deal has been welcomed by some rivals such as WPP's Martin Sorrell who believes that two companies client base has been disturbed, which in turn may lead to increasing business for WPP.
Back in July, chief executive of Publicis, Maurice Levy, said:
Sure, there are some competitors which would have much liked to see us losing some accounts, as they will be extremely happy to benefit from this. I don’t believe it will be significant.