The chief executives of advertising companies Publicis and Omnicom Group are working together to resolve a seven-month-old struggle over who will be chief financial officer of their combined group if the $35 billion merger is completed, three people close to the deal said on Sunday.John Wren, the head of New York-based Omnicom, and Maurice Levy, his opposite number at Paris-based Publicis, are in regular contact to try to settle the CFO choice, which has fuelled tensions between the two sides since September as they seek to secure regulatory approvals for the blockbuster deal, the people said.Both remain committed to the tie-up, which would create the world's biggest ad agency ahead of current leader WPP, added the sources.The infighting over the CFO shows the pitfalls of trying to engineer a "merger of equals" as the deal was billed when it was announced to much fanfare in July.
Omnicom Group Inc. (Omnicom) is a holding company, providing professional services to clients through multiple agencies. Shares of OMC fell by 2.85% or $-1.99/share to $67.91. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $59.03 and as high as $76.87. On average, 1640690 shares of OMC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 3823117.
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