Billy (not his real name) is the kind of senior marketer who usually has a hot take for every occasion. Brand safety? He’ll unravel the industrial complex behind it. Transparency? Buckle up; he’ll spill it all.

However, when it comes to Interpublic Group’s Acxiom, Billy’s take is conspicuously missing. It’s not because he’s uninformed; he just doesn’t think IPG has offered enough answers to form an opinion worth having. 

“It [Acxiom] was always much stronger in the U.S. compared to Europe in terms of the IDs at its disposal, so there wasn’t really enough we could’ve done with them,” said Billy, who is one of IPG’s clients. “And even then, it was us pushing for it, not them [IPG].”

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Omnicom’s proposed acquisition of IPG, announced last month, would make it the world’s largest agency-holding company, with $25 billion in annual ad revenue and over 100,000 employees.

The deal aims to generate $750 million in cost synergies, primarily by consolidating back-office functions and reducing redundancies by potentially cutting 30% of staff. A depressingly familiar page in the corporate playbook.

However, the initial pitch from IPG and Omnicom’s executive teams focused on other outcomes, such as AI and the combination of both entities’ big bets in data-enabled marketing. 

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The Holiday or Xmas Party season intuitively leads to thoughts of revelry, marking the end-of-year cadence whereby those contributing to a common cause are thanked for their efforts, and standout performers are acknowledged.

However, as many HR managers can attest, such affairs can also be fraught with liability, an experience that organizers of the AdTechChat Xmas Party Extravaganza underwent in the days after the Dec. 4 event when community divisions flared.

The event was hosted by organizers of the AdTechChat community — a series of discussion groups for industry practitioners taking place on various social channels, primarily in the form of several WhatsApp groups — and took place in The Phoenix Arts Club, London, a venue known for “cabaret & variety from drag to musical theatre, burlesque,” acts.

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In what is likely to be one of the year’s biggest media stories, Omnicom Group has announced plans to acquire The Interpublic Group of Companies in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $13 billion.

This merger is set to create the world’s largest advertising conglomerate, combining renowned agencies such as BBDO, TBWA Worldwide, and McCann Worldgroup under one umbrella, after the two entities’ respective leadership teams decided that scale is the way forward on Madison Avenue.

According to official filings, the combined entity is projected to generate annual revenues exceeding $25 billion with an adjusted EBITA of $3.9 billion and free cash flow of $3.3 billion. Individually, Omnicom’s full-year revenue for 2023 was $14.69 billion, reflecting growth of 4.1%, while IPG’s was $10.89 billion, down from $10.93 billion in 2022.

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The much-touted revival of ad tech mergers and acquisitions appears underway. Earlier this week, Experian confirmed it is buying curation firm Audigent, capping off a round of such consolidation moves in Q4.  

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As the week closed, sources told Digiday that Channel Factory, is seeking to join these ranks, with the company understood to be holding talks with potential new backers in recent weeks.

Sources consulted by Digiday estimate the company, which specializes in the brand suitability sector, could command an exit price in the hundreds of millions of dollars range. Albeit it’s understood Channel Factory is characterizing its latest efforts as a bid to gain further investment, as it seeks to accelerate its growth.

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