Dentsu Drops the Aegis Name

Marcoms group Dentsu Aegis Network is to change its name to Dentsu International Limited, dropping a name it acquired with the purchase in 2012 of British-owned Aegis Group.

The 2012 buy (priced at $4.9 billion and completed in March 2013) ended years of speculation about the sale of Aegis, including multiple interventions by French billionaire Vincent Bolloré. Aegis was the parent of global top ten MR agency Synovate, until the latter's acquisition by Ipsos in 2011. Today's announcement by CEO Toshihiro Yamamoto came in a filing with the Tokyo Stock exchange, and followed the approval of Dentsu Aegis Network's Board of Directors.

Dentsu operates in more than 145 markets worldwide, and its brands include Merkle, iProspect and Posterscope. The newly named Dentsu International Limited will be a subsidiary of Japanese parent Dentsu and oversee its international business operations, with Tim Andree as Executive Chairman and Wendy Clark as Global CEO. Around 48,000 of Dentsu's 66,000 employees work for the International division.

Pending registration with UK Companies House, DAN's name change should come into effect in the next two weeks.

A web site at www.dentsuaegisnetwork.com is still functional .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.