Publicis and Omnicom plot $35bn merger Together, Publicis and Omnicom had combined 2012 revenue of $22.7bn, with more than 130,000 employees. The deal would merge Publicis brands such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett with Omnicom's BBDO Worldwide and DDB Worldwide. Omnicom chief executive John Wren will share the top job with his Publicis counterpart Maurice Levy for 30 months, after which Mr Levy will become non-executive chairman and Wren sole CEO, Publicis said. The companies said the transaction would be a cross-border merger of equals under Netherlands-based holding company Publicis Omnicom Group, with stock market listings in both New York and Paris. Publicis said the deal, which had been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, was expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2014. However, the head of rival agency Havas questioned the logic of the merger yesterday, saying digital business and technology had made scale irrelevant, and that the uncertainties associated with large mergers would distract staff away from clients. "I'm not sure this is in the best interests of their clients or their talent," David Jones said. Clients today want us to be faster, more agile, more nimble and more entrepreneurial, not bigger and more bureaucratic and more complex. The deal could also face headwinds from competition authorities with the combined group controlling 41pc of global advertising budgets. However Mr Levy said he did not expect resistance to the deal from the French government.