Omnicom boss John Wren has signed a brand new contract – at a cut price basement $1 a yr – to remain on as chairman and CEO till the tip of 2028, when he’ll step right down to be govt chairman. Wren, after all, has just lately made the second greatest name of his enterprise life (the primary was an aborted merger with Publicis Groupe over a decade in the past) with the agreed merger with IPG (in impact a takeover by Omnicom.)
Wren’s base wage was $1m though he can console himself with an choice to purchase 4 million Omnicom shares (at the moment $75) granted on Could 12.
The Omnicom/IPG merger is at the moment grinding by way of numerous regulatory processes the world over (Britain’s Competitors and Markets Authority is at the moment it) though it could be robust if it had been blocked contemplating the stranglehold tech giants Google and Meta at the moment have over promoting (they’re eternally being investigated by some physique or different however nothing substantive ever appears to occur.)
Wren will likely be hoping they get a transfer on (as will IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky who stands to make excess of Wren from the deal – $52m based on some reviews, each above) as IPG is leaking accounts and shedding folks even because it continues to function independently.
What’s going to a merged Omnicom/IPG appear like and who, finally, will succeed Wren as CEO? It is going to be the most important with a income of about $25bn (except there are additional upsets at IPG), properly forward of Publicis and WPP. By market cap issues are reversed: Publicis is at the moment value $26bn in opposition to Omnicom/IPG’s $21bn, suggesting buyers are way more satisfied concerning the French-based group’s prospects.
So loads of challenges forward for Wren who has to navigate job losses and the consumer dissatisfaction that comes with it to realize the fee financial savings underpinning the deal. However Wren has a stable file as a supervisor and he’ll inherit some valued IPG companies: inventive networks McCann, FCB and MullenLowe, a Mediabrands operation that’s stronger within the US than elsewhere, knowledge enterprise Acxiom which has to this point failed to supply apparent magic for IPG however will add to Omnicom’s knowledge cocktail bar plus PR headed by Golin and Weber Shandwick. They could not all survive after all.
As for Wren’s successor as CEO, it seems fairly sure to be an insider used to working with Wren, who’ll nonetheless be exec chairman at 76. So difficult for an outsider. COO Daryl Sim, who used to move Omnicom’s media line-up is the ante-post favorite, reflecting media’s present pre-eminence among the many holding corporations. A decade or so BBDO’s Andrew Robertson was mooted as an eventual successor however inventive networks have misplaced floor in holding firm land fairly spectacularly. Krakowsky shouldn’t be written off (he’s staying on) however he might want to spend extra time along with his cash.
2028 is a great distance forward although and there might be extra dramatic developments among the many advert holding corporations earlier than then.
