Cue the schadenfreude: Omnicom-Publicis deal falls apart

Plans to create the biggest agency in history have fallen apart, and the ad world is quick to chime in about why the merger failed.

WPP’s Martin Sorrell, who stood to lose from the merger, predictably, dumped all over the breakup news in various interviews. Sorrell said the deal was only driven by emotions and “Gallic charm” and added, “Their eyes were bigger than their tummy.”

Quartz wrote this I-told-you-so piece suggesting the deal was doomed in the first place, noting that canceled deals are up 30 percent. “Notwithstanding the ins and outs of this particular deal in this particular industry, don’t say that we didn’t warn you. The history of mega-deals is not a happy one, as we wrote recently.”

Adland pronounced it the “world’s biggest fail.”

The Deal said the merger was always likely to be tricky.

Twitter, being Twitter, was less nuanced:

 

 

Others wondered about the fallout:

 

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