Omnicom and Interpublic shed 8,200 roles across the two groups last year, in the run-up to the completion of their merger and a subsequent restructure in December.
Omnicom’s annual report showed its total headcount jumped by more than 45,000, or 60%, to 120,000 at 31 December 2025, after acquiring IPG. That compared with 128,200 that the two companies employed in aggregate at the end of December 2024 — 74,900 at Omnicom and 53,300 at IPG.
The headcount reduction of 8,200 amounted to a 6.4% decline and likely came through a mix of redundancies, natural attrition and agency disposals.
It was the second year in a row where both Omnicom and IPG cut staff. Their combined headcount was 133,300 at the end of December 2023, when the two companies, led by John Wren, the chief executive of Omnicom, and Philippe Krakowsky, the then chief executive of IPG, first began to explore a potential merger.
IPG lost 3200 heads in the first nine months of 2025, after losing a string of big accounts, according to its Q3 financials, its final results as a public company. Omnicom did not disclose a number but likely shed close to 5000 during 2025, based on the end-of-year figure in the annual report.
Wren announced 4,000 redundancies on 1 December as part of a sweeping restructure, with the aim of completing the cuts by the end of the year. It was not clear whether all of those job losses were fully reflected in the 120,000-strong headcount number in the annual report.
Omnicom went on to announce last week at its Q4 results that it was doubling the target for annual synergies from the IPG acquisition to $1.5 billion by 2028, with $1 billion of those savings coming from “labour-related” costs.
The US agency group said it will accelerate plans to offshore more jobs to low-cost locations and outsource other roles to third parties.
Omnicom previously said at the time of the December restructure that its headcount would end up at about 105,000. It is understood the company expects to achieve that by mid-2028, based on the timetable set out at the Q4 results.
It means that Omnicom is set to lose a further 15,000 roles over the next three years.
A significant part of the headcount reduction is likely to come from agency disposals, as Wren has said that Omnicom plans to lose about 10,000 heads from the payroll by exiting non-core businesses or selling majority stakes. Examples include R/GA, which IPG sold last year, and Jack Morton, which Omnicom exited at the start of 2026.
Omnicom’s 120,000-strong headcount is made up of 37,700 in the US, 17,600 in the rest of the Americas, 38,000 in EMEA and 26,700 in Asia-Pacific, according to the annual report.
US headcount jumped 72% last year, reflecting IPG’s greater exposure to its home market.
The rest of the Americas — where Omnicom has low-cost centres in Colombia and Costa Rica — also increased staff numbers strongly, with an 89% rise.
Asia-Pacific was up 58% and EMEA was up 42%.
The US is Omnicom’s biggest market by revenue, generating more than 50% of global turnover, and the UK is next largest, generating close to 10%.
The annual report also confirmed Omnicom paid $8.9 billion for IPG in the all-stock deal. IPG was valued at over $13 billion when the two companies first agreed terms in December 2024. However, the valuation was linked to Omnicom’s stock price, which fell by about 30% by the time the acquisition closed last November amid investor concerns and wider uncertainty about the agency sector.
Source: Campaign UK
