Omnicom

BBDO was itself the product of a merger: in 1919 Bruce Barton, Roy Durstine and Alex Osborn opened the advertising agency Barton, Durstine & Osborn in New York, and on May 16, 1928, it merged with the George Batten Company, located in the same building, to form Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn. Doyle Dane Bernbach was founded in 1949 by Ned Doyle, William Bernbach and Maxwell Dane. Needham Harper Worldwide traced its origins to the advertising agency Maurice Needham opened in Illinois in 1924; after several mergers and name changes, it adopted that name in 1984.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In the summer of 1986, Needham Harper Worldwide, then ranked 16th, Doyle Dane Bernbach, ranked 12th, and BBDO, ranked 6th, joined together to form Omnicom. The three had combined 1985 billings of more than $5 billion, and at its formation the group was the world’s second-largest advertising holding company, behind Saatchi & Saatchi. Omnicom Group Inc. was incorporated in New York. John Wren was part of the team that created Omnicom.⁠[1][1][2][3]

Integrating the three competing agencies fell to BBDO head Allen Rosenshine, and the process proved difficult: merger and restructuring costs exceeded $40 million, leaving Omnicom essentially without profit in its first year, and some clients opposed to the merger took their business elsewhere, such as RJR Nabisco, which left immediately. The three agencies lost $184 million in billings directly attributable to the merger, and in 1987 the company earned only $32 million on commissions and fees of $785 million.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

Bruce Crawford, a former president of BBDO who after leaving in 1985 had served as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, returned to advertising in early 1989 as Omnicom’s chief executive officer, charged with driving its restructuring by cutting superfluous management layers and divesting businesses. In 1990, John Wren became chief executive officer of Omnicom’s Diversified Agency Services (DAS) division.⁠[1][1][1][3]

In 1996, John Wren became president of Omnicom, a post he would hold for 22 years. That year Omnicom acquired the public relations firm Ketchum; by 1998 its public relations firms also included Fleishman-Hillard and Porter Novelli.⁠[3][4]

In January 1997, Bruce Crawford stepped down as chief executive officer while remaining chairman, and John Wren succeeded him as chief executive. In the late 1990s, Omnicom served as the parent company of three advertising networks, BBDO Worldwide, DDB Needham Worldwide and TBWA International, and operated marketing services and specialty communications companies through its DAS division.⁠[1][3][1][1]

On July 28, 2013, Omnicom and France’s Publicis GroupePublicis GroupePublicis Groupe is a multinational communications and marketing services group headquartered in Paris, founded in 1926 by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, listed on Euronext Paris and a component of France’s CAC 40 index. Its businesses span advertising creativity, media, data (Epsilon), digital consulting and technology (Publicis Sapient) and healthcare communications.Open the full entry announced a definitive agreement for a merger of equals to create Publicis Omnicom Group, with combined 2012 revenue of $22.7 billion and more than 130,000 employees. Shareholders of each company would hold about 50% of the new company, which was expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, with John Wren and Maurice Lévy as co-chief executive officers.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5]

On May 8, 2014, Publicis Groupe and Omnicom announced that, in view of difficulties in completing the transaction within a reasonable timeframe, they had terminated the merger of equals by mutual agreement, releasing each other from all obligations with no termination fees payable by either party. Maurice Lévy and John Wren said jointly that the remaining challenges, together with the slow pace of progress, had created uncertainty detrimental to both groups, and that the two companies would proceed along independent paths.⁠[6][6][6][6]

In 2018, John Wren was elected chairman of Omnicom’s board, thereafter serving as both chairman and chief executive officer.⁠[3]

As a result of the war in Ukraine, Omnicom suspended its business operations in Ukraine and disposed of all its businesses in Russia in the first quarter of 2022.⁠[2]

On December 8, 2024, Omnicom entered into a merger agreement with The Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG); on December 9 the two companies announced that their boards had unanimously approved Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic in a stock-for-stock transaction, under which Interpublic shareholders would receive 0.344 Omnicom shares for each Interpublic share, with legacy Omnicom and Interpublic shareholders owning 60.6% and 39.4% of the combined company, respectively, on a fully diluted basis.⁠[2][7][7][7]

The companies expected the transaction to generate $750 million in annual cost synergies and the combined company to have more than 100,000 employees; combined 2023 revenue was $25.6 billion, 57% of it from the United States. Under the plan, John Wren would remain chairman and chief executive officer, Phil Angelastro chief financial officer, and Interpublic chief executive Philippe Krakowsky and Omnicom’s Daryl Simm would serve as co-presidents and co-chief operating officers.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

On March 13, 2025, Omnicom and Interpublic announced that each had received a Request for Additional Information and Documentary Material (Second Request) from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, and that both still expected the transaction to close in the second half of 2025.⁠[8][8][8]

On March 18, 2025, Omnicom and Interpublic each held a special meeting of stockholders, and the stockholders of both companies overwhelmingly approved the acquisition.⁠[9]

On June 23, 2025, the FTC concluded its antitrust review of the transaction and reached a consent order with Omnicom and Interpublic, granting early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act the same day; the consent order then entered a 30-day public comment period before final acceptance by the FTC. On September 26, 2025, after the public comment period, the FTC finalized the consent order; John Wren said the agreement reaffirmed the company’s commitment to provide clients with neutral and unbiased advice on their brand media placement decisions.⁠[10][10][10][11][11]

As of September 30, 2025, regulatory approval of the acquisition had been completed in all required jurisdictions other than Mexico and the European Union, and the companies then expected the transaction to close by December 31, 2025.⁠[12][12]

On November 24, 2025, the European Commission approved Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic, the last regulatory clearance required to complete the transaction.⁠[13]

On November 26, 2025, after receiving all necessary regulatory approvals and satisfying the other closing conditions, Omnicom completed the acquisition: an Omnicom merger subsidiary merged with and into Interpublic, which survived as a wholly owned subsidiary of Omnicom, and Interpublic’s stock ceased trading. The combined company continues to operate under the Omnicom name with headquarters in New York and to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OMC, with pro forma combined revenue in excess of $25 billion. Philippe Krakowsky, Patrick Moore and E. Lee Wyatt Jr. joined Omnicom’s board.⁠[14][2][2][2][14][14]

In connection with the merger, Omnicom offered to exchange new notes for Interpublic’s outstanding senior notes; the exchange was completed on December 2, 2025, with about 94% of Interpublic’s senior notes exchanged for $2.76 billion in aggregate principal amount of new Omnicom notes, and the remaining roughly 6% remaining obligations of Interpublic.⁠[2][2]

On December 1, 2025, Omnicom announced its post-acquisition “Connected Capabilities” structure and leaders: Florian Adamski heads Omnicom Media (including media agency brands such as Hearts & Science, Initiative, Mediahub, OMD and PHD, as well as Acxiom); Chris Foster heads Omnicom Public Relations (including FleishmanHillard, Golin, Ketchum, Porter Novelli and Weber Shandwick); Troy Ruhanen heads Omnicom Advertising (including BBDO, McCann, TBWA and the U.S. Advertising Collective); Duncan Painter heads the Omni platform and the Flywheel Commerce Network; and Michael Larson heads Diversified Agency Services, which oversees areas including health, branding and precision marketing.⁠[15][15][15][15][15][15]

In January 2026, Omnicom unveiled the next generation of Omni, its proprietary marketing intelligence platform, which integrates its capabilities, identity and data infrastructure and artificial intelligence into a single operating system; Acxiom and Interact, acquired from Interpublic, and Flywheel Commerce Cloud are part of the platform.⁠[2][2][2]

In 2025, Omnicom’s worldwide revenue was $17,271.9 million, up 10.1% from $15,689.1 million in 2024 and including one month of Interpublic operations in the fourth quarter. The year included $1,247.0 million of severance, real estate repositioning and other costs, $547.1 million of losses on dispositions of businesses in connection with the merger and $347.3 million of acquisition-related costs, and net loss attributable to the company was $54.5 million, compared with net income of $1,480.6 million in 2024. At December 31, 2025, the company employed approximately 120,000 people worldwide, about 37,700 of them in the United States; its largest client accounted for about 2.4% of revenue that year.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2]

In the second quarter of 2026, Omnicom’s consolidated revenue was $6,562.5 million, including $567.5 million from businesses disposed of or held for sale; revenue from core operations, excluding those businesses, was about $6.0 billion, up 7.2% from the prior-year quarter, with organic growth of 6.1%. By discipline, integrated media accounted for 52.5% of core-operations revenue, advertising 15.7% and public relations 11.3% ($679.1 million); by region, the United States accounted for 59.0%.⁠[16][16][16][16][16]

In its annual report Omnicom describes itself as a strategic holding company that provides marketing, sales, communications and commerce services through global networks, connected capabilities and specialized agencies; as of its 2025 annual report, its global networks were Omnicom Advertising, Omnicom Media, the DAS Group of Companies and the Communications Consultancy Network (CCN). CCN includes FleishmanHillard and Ketchum, as well as Golin and Weber Shandwick, acquired from Interpublic. Its disciplines comprise media and advertising, precision marketing, public relations, healthcare, branding and retail commerce, experiential, and execution and support.⁠[2][2][2][2]

The public relations unit operates externally as Omnicom Public Relations, covering public relations, public affairs and specialty services. As of October 2026, its public affairs firms include GMMB, FP1, maslansky + partners, PLUS Communications, Portland Communications, Powell Tate and Vox Global, among others.⁠[17][17][17][17]

Omnicom: Official website: https://www.omc.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]

X: Public account: https://x.com/omnicom (opens in a new window)⁠[18]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/omnicom (opens in a new window)⁠[18]