Hasta La Creative!

“The decision to discontinue the process was neither pleasant nor an easy one to make, but it was a necessary one,” Mr. Levy said in a statement from Publicis. “Prolonging the situation could have led to the diversion of the Group’s management from its principle function: to best serve our clients.”

The split was unanimously approved by the management board and the supervisory board of Publicis Groupe and the board of directors at Omnicom, according to the companies.

Omnicom shares fell $1.80, or 2.7%, to $64.40 in after-hours trading this evening after word leaked out that the deal was dead, pushing the stock below the price where it traded before the merger was announced last July ($65.11).

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