Omnicom PR revenue declined 2% in the fourth quarter to $340.8M, a 3.7% decrease organically.
For the year, the conglomerate's PR operation was up 1.5% on an organic basis to $1.3B, a 2.9% climb overall at firms like Ketchum, Porter Novelli and FleishmanHillard.
OMC CFO Randall Weisenberger said the PR performance, although down, was "pretty good," adding the year-over-year decline in PR was more due to “exceptional performance” in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Across all OMC units, net income fell 2.1% to $300.5M as revenue ticked up 2.9% to top $4B for the quarter, including a 1.6% increase in U.S. revenue to nearly $2.1B.
Overseas revenue climbed 4.3% to just under $2B.
For the year, OMC revenue was up 2.6% to $14.6B on a net income decline of $7.2M to $991.1M.
Advertising climbed 2.6% to just under $2B in Q4, while its customer relationship management operation -- The Integer Group, Agency.com -- soared 6.1% to $1.4B on field marketing events and print and custom publishing businesses.
Omnicom is the process of merging with Publicis and took $13.3M in charges related to that deal in the fourth quarter. "This transaction is highly complex and is taking longer than we originally expected," said CEO John Wrien in a conference call today, adding closure "most likely will slip into the third quarter."
Publicis reports earnings on Feb. 12.
OMC, which spent $112.2M on acquisitions and earn-outs in 2013, including Singapore PR operation Icon (now part of Ketchum), ended the year with $4B in debt and $2.7B in cash/investments.
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