A look at some of the major developments and issues that were under discussion during the week...
Omnicom & Publicis’ ‘merger of equals’ deal falls through
In a surprise move, Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group called off the $35 billion merger deal on May 9, 2014, a little over nine months after announcing plans to team up in what was termed as “merger of equals”.
Publicis Groupe and Omnicom have said that the decision to call off the deal was mutual, following “difficulties in completing the transaction within a reasonable timeframe”. Both the parties have released each other from all obligations with respect to the proposed transaction, and no termination fees will be payable by either party.
The split has been unanimously approved by the management board and the supervisory board of Publicis Groupe and the board of directors at Omnicom.
TAM ratings are once again in focus with NDTV deciding to re-subscribe to TAM data. NDTV re-subscribed to TAM data last month and the subscription has just started.
When asked about the reason behind the decision to go back to the ratings, KV Narayan Rao, Executive Vice Chairperson, NDTV replied,“Basically, they had stopped giving data relating to NDTV to advertising agencies, which was beginning to affect the revenues.”