International business segment of Dentsu on the market for potential purchasers.
Dentsu Considering Selling or Merging Part of International Business
In a significant development, Japanese advertising holding company Dentsu is reportedly exploring the possibility of selling or merging parts of its international business to improve competitiveness and reassess underperforming business areas.
According to reports, Dentsu is represented in Germany through media agency Carat, CRM and digital subsidiary Merkle, and creative agency RCKT. The global CEO of Dentsu, Wendy Clark, stepped down in 2022, and since then, the company has been undergoing changes.
A report by the Financial Times suggests that Dentsu is planning to sell parts of the company by the end of the year. However, Dentsu declined to comment on the current developments to Campaign.
Brian Wieser, a principal at Madison and Wall, noted that Dentsu's ownership of the international business is unusual, as it is completely separate from the domestic business. He suggests that potential buyers for Dentsu's parts could be Accenture Song, other holding companies, large independent companies, or private equity firms. Wieser rules out Interpublic Group (IPG) and Omnicom as buyers due to their focus on their own merger, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Potential buyers or merger partners for Dentsu's international business in 2023 include major global entities like Accenture, which is reported as an interested party. Dentsu's CEO, Hiroshi Igarashi, expressed openness to this move in an analyst conference in early August.
However, Igarashi stated in 2023 that a sale did not fit his way of thinking, but he did not fundamentally rule out a merger. This year, Dentsu announced plans to integrate its business areas after Wendy Clark's departure.
Notably, Dentsu acquired Aegis in 2012 and abandoned the name in 2020. The company's US-based digital marketing consultancy, Merkle, is now under Dentsu's umbrella.
In Germany, Dentsu is led by Katja Brand, who was recently hired as the new CEO and will start her job next week. Dentsu announced a 0.2 percent drop in organic revenue for the first half of 2025 and reduced the growth forecast for 2025 to 1 percent.
Japan holds a special position within the global agency industry, and any developments in Dentsu's business are closely watched. This article was first published in "Campaign UK" and adapted and supplemented with country-specific information for the German market by "Campaign Germany" (published by the media publishing house Oberauer).
