The Commerce Commission has granted clearance to Omnicom Group Inc (Omnicom) to acquire, via a merger with its wholly owned subsidiary, 100% of the shares in The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc (Interpublic).
Deputy Chair Anne Callinan said that the Commission was satisfied that the acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any New Zealand market.
"Our investigation found that, while Omnicom and Interpublic compete to supply marketing and communications services (MCS) and media buying services (MBS) to advertiser clients throughout New Zealand, the merged entity is likely to continue to face strong competitive constraint from other large MCS and MBS agencies, as well as local independent agencies supplying these services, following the acquisition."
"The merged entity is also likely to continue to face a degree of competitive constraint from advertiser clients and their ability to in-house some MCS and procure media directly from media owners. On the buy side, rival media buyers are likely to continue to constrain the merged entity in the procurement of media inventory."
Given this, the Commission is of the view that there would not be a substantial loss of competitive constraint on Omnicom as a result of the acquisition.
A public version of the written reasons for the decision will be available on the Commission's case register in due course.
Background
We will only give clearance to a proposed merger if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.
