
WPP, the largest agency holding company by revenue, maintained its acquisition momentum in the first quarter by striking deals for 6 tech firms and 10 marketing and communications companies, according to research by M&A advisers Results International.
Omnicom Group , No. 2 by revenue, bought seven marketing and communications companies in the first quarter and Publicis Groupe, No. 3, bought five. Neither bought any tech companies, despite their claim that their now-abandoned merger plan was partly motivated by competition from tech giants like Google and Facebook.
“WPP is the only one doing tech deals,” said Jim Houghton, a partner at Results International. “It’s ironic, given that Publicis and Omnicom wanted to focus on a new, technology-driven world — a world that might have looked a bit like what WPP is doing.”
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