The Omnicom-IPG megamerger signals a new era for the ad industry
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Hello. Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania on Monday and initially faced local gun and forgery charges. Our team has been covering this developing story โ keep up with our coverage here.
In today's newsletter, the $13 billion Omnicom-IPG megamerger reflects a new era as Big Tech and AI upend the ad industry.
What's on deck:
- Markets: Nvidia shares fell after China hit the chipmaker with an antitrust probe.
- Tech: Former Google employees on being laid off from the tech giant and their advice for those in a similar position.
- Business: Rupert Murdoch lost a 'Succession-like' legal battle over future control of his media empire.
But first, a new ad-venture.
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The big story
The ad industry's new era
It's already been a big week for the ad industry.
Omnicom Group said it had reached an agreement to acquire Interpublic Group, a merger worth more than $30 billion that would create the world's largest ad conglomerate.
Across the pond at Paris-based Publicis Groupe, the party hats might be staying in the drawer. Just last week, Publicis recruited Snoop Dogg for a video to help celebrate the firm usurping London's WPP to become the world's largest ad holding company.
But it's not just about being No. 1. For ad industry insiders, the proposed takeover reflects an ad sector under threat from Big Tech and AI, writes Business Insider's Lara O'Reilly. By creating a larger company, Omnicom-IPG will have a bigger base to deploy data and technology, which could give it leverage to secure beneficial and exclusive deals with partners such as cloud providers.
Keep in mind, however, that in the short term mergers can be highly disruptive.
Concerned clients. Bruised egos. Job cuts.
Integrating two companies with 100,000 people combined, dozens of different agency brands, and hundreds of offices across the globe will not be a simple task. There will likely be synergies โ including job cuts. "It will be harder to climb the career ladder. Superstar creators and creatives will also be in demand, as well as good strategists, in all disciplines. But, lots of other roles will become diminished," Simon Francis, who leads the marketing consultancy Flock Associates, told BI.
However, as Lara highlights, that could create opportunities for smaller agencies, especially as the merged company works its way through the disruption caused by integration, egos being knocked out of joint (it wouldn't be the first time), and potential client conflicts where the new entity suddenly works with two or more fierce rivals in the same sector.
"From an M&A perspective, it's only going to add fuel to the fire."
That's according to William Ritchie, founding and managing director of advisor firm WY Partners. "I'd expect there is going to be more competition for the best assets and more focus on building a streamlined data and tech-first offering which can compete," he told BI.
Private equity has been circling the ad industry, too. Apollo, KKR, and Blackstone have shown interest in media and entertainment. Industry insiders have speculated for months that WPP could be taken private โ or at least some parts of it could be.
News brief
Top headlines
- What we know about Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League grad charged with murder in UnitedHealthcare CEO's killing.
- Jay-Z asks judge to unmask Jane Doe who said in a lawsuit that he and Diddy raped her when she was 13 years old.
- Trump says he's 'having dinner' with Jeff Bezos. It's the latest development in their long history.
- AMD downgraded after BI report on weak demand for its AI chips among AWS customers.
- Post-Assad Syria will be a new challenge for America's Middle East strategy.
3 things in markets
- Nvidia stock drops as China probes the chipmaker over potential antitrust violations. China's government is looking into Nvidia's acquisition of chip design firm Mellanox, which it previously approved. Nvidia stock fell by more than 2.5% early Tuesday.
- Microsoft and Amazon investors are eyeing pieces of the bitcoin pie. Shareholders at Microsoft and Amazon will decide this week if their respective companies should consider investing in bitcoin. The cryptocurrency recently blew past a $100,000 milestone that bestowed great gains on MicroStrategy, which saw triple-digit gains after buying up bitcoin this year.
- Some advice from Citi's newly minted MDs. Citi appointed its largest class of managing directors under CEO Jane Fraser last week. Five of the new MDs told BI their best career advice and reflected on the bank's massive transformation.
3 things in tech
- Life after Google. The past few years have been rough for those in the tech world as the industry faced historic layoffs. Eight ex-Googlers โ including one who has since returned โ shared what it was like to lose what some considered their "dream job," and how they found their footing after.
- Inside MrBeast City. Jimmy Donaldson, the creator better known as MrBeast, shared photos of the "city" he built for his upcoming "Beast Games" show. He said it cost more than $14 million to build.
- OpenAI's shiny new video generator is open to the public. Sora, which can generate videos up to 20 seconds long from written prompts, went live Monday. Its product lead said a team of about five or six engineers built the generator in months.
3 things in business
- Murdoch's "Succession" battle. Life imitates art, or perhaps, art imitates life. Rupert Murdoch lost a legal case over the future of his media empire in a real-life succession battle on Monday. Rupert, 93, and his son Lachlan took on three other Murdoch children in court โ and lost, for now.
- Thinking outside the deck. For better or worse, slide decks have been at the crux of how Americans work in the nearly four decades since PowerPoint launched. But they've also faced a lot of backlash, including from CEOs like Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai. Does that mean the deck is in jeopardy? Next slide.
- AI's pollution price tag. AI-related emissions will soon rival that of all the cars in California, according to a new study. In just six years, the study found, AI electricity consumption could pollute the air so much that asthma-related deaths could spike by more than a third. By 2030, researchers calculated, AI's health impact could total up to $20 billion.
What's happening today
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testifies at his corruption trial in Jerusalem.
- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks at Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit.
- Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize, are presented in Stockholm, Sweden.
The Insider Today team: Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York Milan Sehmbi, fellow, in London.