BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. advertising company Omnicom Group Inc and French peer Publicis Groupe SA have asked European Union antitrust regulators to approve their proposed $35.1 billion merger to create the world number one agency.
Omnicom, the world’s second biggest agency, and No. 3 Publicis unveiled the merger in July, saying it would help them compete better with online rivals.
The European Commission said it would decide by January 9 whether to clear the deal, according to a filing on its website on Tuesday.
Regulators in the United States, South Korea, Canada, India, Turkey and South Africa have already cleared the deal.
Omnicom’s clients include PepsiCo, Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and AT&T. Publicis has Coca-Cola, Verizon and Google Inc.
Omnicom and Publicis compete with current leader WPP, U.S.-based Interpublic, France’s Havas and Japan’s Dentsu.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee– Editing by Louise Heavens)
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