Monday, 22 September 2014 00:00
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Reuters: A Dentsu Aegis executive has said that the advertising company was not interested in acquiring rival Interpublic Group of Cos, putting merger speculation to rest for the moment.
U.S.-based IPG, long considered a takeover candidate, has been under increased pressure since activist hedge fund Elliott Management took a 6.7% stake in the company, a move that could eventually result in a sale.
Dentsu is considered one of the potential suitors. But Executive Vice President Tim Andree, a board member, said during an investors conference that the Japanese company was not in talks with IPG or Elliott.
“We have no interest in IPG,” he said. “We will remain acquisitive ... but scale in and of itself is not a strategy.”
Dentsu is still working through its acquisition of British marketing group Aegis.
The $5 billion deal, which closed in 2013, is the largest transaction in Dentsu’s history.
“Scale matters, but there is a limit to that,” said Andree.
France’s Publicis Groupe SA and U.S.-based Omnicom Group Inc planned to merge to form what would have been the world’s largest ad agency, but the $35 billion deal collapsed in May because of cultural differences.
