17068: Further Investigating Investigations.

 

MediaPost reported the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)—a UK regulatory organization—is investigating if the proposed Omnicom acquisition of IPG would adversely impact competition in the country.

 

Although the following perspective is based on US Adland, there may be applications for the UK, as the two countries share business values and practices.

 

An area of competition not likely to be probed involves further preventing and/or severely limiting non-White advertising agencies—aka multicultural marketing firms—from competing for brand business.

 

In the US, an anti-DEIBA+ movement is being fueled by politics, fortifying systemic racism. As a result, non-White advertising agencies have seen a reduction in interest, assignments, and crumbs.

 

At the same time, non-White advertising agencies have historically been blocked from competing for accounts via scheming maneuvers including:

 

• White advertising agencies position non-White advertising agencies as lacking the experience and resources to handle big accounts.

 

• White advertising agencies engage in Corporate Cultural Collusion, whereby accounts are awarded without a formal review. Omnicom and IPG are masters of this game.

 

• White advertising agencies arrange “partnerships” with non-White advertising agencies, whereby the former receives the lion’s share of projects and billing, relegating the latter to pseudo cultural consultants and translators.

 

• In the aforementioned partnerships, non-White advertising agencies—especially for governmental contracts—become victims of Prime Redlining.

 

In short, an Omnicom-IPG clusterfuck would dramatically impact competition, potentially putting non-White advertising agencies out of business entirely—but don’t expect regulators to even consider such probable scenarios.

 

UK Regulator Investigating Omnicom-IPG Merger

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Six months after Omnicom announced its proposed acquisition of Interpublic Group, a UK regulatory body has announced that it is investigating whether the deal would stifle competition in the country. 

 

The probe, by the Competition And Markets Authority (CMA) was announced May 7. The first step, it said was to solicit comments from “interested parties,” with comments due by May 21. 

 

“The CMA is issuing this preliminary ‘invitation to comment’ to allow interested parties to submit to the CMA any initial views on the impact that the transaction could have on competition in the UK,” the Authority stated.  

 

The group said it has not yet launched a formal investigation – “This invitation to comment is the first part of the CMA’s information-gathering process.” 

 

The merger was announced December 8.  

 

During its Q1 earnings call with analysts last month, Omnicom reported that it had received regulatory clearance from six of the 18 jurisdictions the companies need clearance from, including China, Colombia, Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. 

 

In March, New Zealand launched a formal probe looking into competition issues and the companies received a second request for information from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Such requests occur with a relatively small number of M&A deals that receive Hart-Scott-Rodino scrutiny from the FTC or the Justice Department, although the companies stated it was a “standard part of the regulatory process.”