(Reuters) – Advertising and marketing conglomerate Omnicom Group is in advanced talks to acquire Interpublic Group in an all-stock deal that is likely to value Interpublic at between $13 billion and $14 billion, excluding debt, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
A transaction could be announced as early as this week, the report said, adding that the exact terms of the deal being discussed could not be learned.
Omnicom and Interpublic didn’t immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment outside of business hours.
New York-based Omnicom competes with the Interpublic Group of Companies and UK’s WPP, and is one of the world’s biggest integrated advertising and communications firms with more than 5,000 customers.
Interpublic, which has clients in sectors ranging from healthcare to retail, had a market value of around $10.9 billion as of Friday and its shares have fallen 10.36% year to date to $29.48.
(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur and Disha Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Lisa Shumaker)