MediaPost reported on the Omnicom 4Q report featuring an upcoming $2.5B Fire Sale, whereby the White holding company will unload non-strategic and underperforming assets.
The report sparked additional thoughts from this blog’s editorial board.
Wonder if any non-White assets—e.g., minority-owned enterprises like Spike DDB or alma—will be deemed non-strategic or underperforming.
What is the impact on psychological safety and morale as Omnicom drones wait to learn if they are part of non-strategic or underperforming assets—and experience their ultimate employment fates?
Omnicom Chairman and CEO John Wren is changing his honorary title from Pioneer of Diversity to Pioneer of Divestiture.
Omnicom To Sell $2.5B In ‘Non-Strategic,’ Underperforming Assets
By Steve McClellan
Omnicom issued its fourth quarter and full-year results late Wednesday without providing formal organic growth figures or its outlook for 2026.
The firm said there would be more to come on that at an investor day event in March, although it’s likely that the firm will not be issuing formal organic growth estimates — seen by many as a key metric of ad industry health — throughout 2026. Informal estimates on earnings calls are more likely.
One reason: Planning for this year is not yet complete because executives have been busy wrapping up the Interpublic Group merger and integrating its businesses into the company.
On an earnings call, CFO Phil Angelastro estimated that fourth-quarter organic growth was about 4% for the businesses that the firm intends to hang on to for the long term.
Not included in that growth estimate are businesses that Omnicom is planning to dispose of — about $2.5 billion (revenue) worth of businesses in the combined portfolio.
It also plans to reduce its ownership to minority stakes in another $700 million worth of businesses, mostly in smaller markets. The latter actions are more about “simplicity issues,” than underperformance, Angelastro said.
The outright sales are related to both non-strategic and underperforming assets. The firm has already sold about $800 million of that total, including experiential marketing firm Jack Morton.
The integration of the company’s major platforms — including Omni, IPG Interact, Flywheel and Acxiom ID — are expected to be completed by the end of the current quarter.
Omnicom’s total full-year revenue was $17.3 billion — versus about $15.7 billion in 2024.
The 2025 total includes 12 months of Omnicom revenue and one month of IPG revenue (the merger closed on November 26, 2025).
A more detailed pro forma comparison of the numbers will be provided in the firm’s 10K annual report to be filed with the SEC in the coming weeks.
The pro forma analysis will provide numbers that assume the merger was closed in January of 2024 to provide investors with a more apples-to-apples comparison of Omnicom’s performance over the past year.
On the conference call, CEO John Wren said the company has now determined that it can double the size of achieved synergies to $1.5 billion over the next 30 months. About $900 million in synergies will be achieved in 2026.
About $1 billion of the total synergies will be labor-related, including eliminating duplicative roles, offshoring and automation. The remainder will come from operational efficiencies and real estate consolidations.
In Q4 the company posted $5.5 billion in revenue and an operating loss of $1 billion, due mostly to merger-related costs.
The company is also launching a $5 billion share repurchase program. Company shares were up more than 3% today and another 2.6% in after-hours trading following the earnings release.
Wren said media operations continued to be a standout performer in 2025. He estimated that media and related components (precision marketing and commerce) would account for a “mid-fifties” percentage of the company’s revenue going forward.
When pressed about the impact of AI on jobs, Wren acknowledged that the technology will help cut some positions but that the bigger impact is enabling employees to be more productive.
Company Chief Technology Officer Paolo Yuvienco elaborated that creative teams that used to present three concepts to a client can now present 25 to 50 concepts to that client in the same amount of time. “It’s about the ability to do more with a higher degree of confidence,” he said.
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