No US Government Challenge to Omnicom / Publicis Deal

The US government will not be challenging the ad world's mega-merger, between global groups Omnicom and Publicis, following the expiry of a deadline this week.

The merger, announced at the end of July, will form the world's largest marcoms network, with a combined staff of 130,000 and a market value of $35.1 billion, pushing Kantar-owner WPP into second place in size terms. The expiry of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act means the merger is past one of the potential hurdles - while governments / regulatory authorities in Canada, India, Turkey, South Africa and South Korea have also cleared the deal.

While the approval of shareholders in both companies is still required, and a class action lawsuit by a number of Omnicom shareholders is ongoing, New York-based Omnicom and Paris-based Publicis Groupe say they hope to complete the merger early next year.

Omnicom's research agencies and data firms include Hall & Partners, Flamingo and Communispace, while Publicis is home to pharma insight specialist In-Sync and tech start-up Jana Mobile, among others.