Three people who’ve been interviewed by FTC lawyers said questions focused on how the deal would impact competition for clients. According to one, questions covered how advertisers choose agencies, what are the benefits to working with bigger agencies, and whether there are any “rare” agency capabilities that only one or two agency holding companies could provide exclusively post-acquisition.
Omnicom and the FTC declined to comment, and Interpublic didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline.
On Omnicom’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 earnings call Feb. 4, Chairman and CEO John Wren noted that Omnicom leadership would spend time later this month meeting with consultants to update them on plans, given that marketers often work with them. That may be too late to influence FTC interviews that already have taken place.
“We initiated the process for antitrust approval in the U.S. and we are pleased with the progress we are making,” Wren said during the call. “The planning for regulatory approvals in 17 other jurisdictions is progressing well.”
No talk about collusion
None of the three people who spoke with FTC lawyers said the conversation veered into the subject of agency collusion with advertisers over brand safety, or whether the Omnicom-IPG combination would give the combined agency more clout to enforce standards that might disadvantage some social platforms or media companies.
Those issues were raised in December by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in letters to the CEOs of Omnicom and Interpublic, which demanded the agencies retain all past and future internal records and communications regarding brand safety.