Omnicom

Omnicom and Interpublic have shed thousands of jobs since the announcement of the big merger, which may hinder future growth by turning off prospective talent.

There’s a section in Omnicom's 10-K called “risks related to the merger with IPG,” which spells out some of the challenges faced by OMC CEO John Wren to make the deal pay off.

“Our current and prospective employees may experience uncertainty about their roles following the Merger, which may have an adverse effect on our ability to retain or attract key management and other key personnel,” it reads.

If OMC is unable to retain its star players, it “could face disruptions in our respective operations, loss of existing clients, loss of key information, expertise or know‑how and unanticipated additional recruitment and training costs.”

OMC says it has incurred and is expected to continue to incur significant costs in connection with the merger and integration of IPG, which may be more than what management had anticipated.

It also notes that the merger may result in the loss of clients, service providers, vendors, joint venture participants and other business counterparties.

If those ties are severed, or if OMC loses “the benefits of existing contracts due to conflicts that may arise in connection with the Merger or other factors discussed above, our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be adversely affected,” says the 10-K.

The merger has made OMC a big and more complex operation.

“Our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to manage this expanded business, which will pose substantial challenges for management, including challenges related to the management of a larger number of operations and geographies and associated increased costs and complexity,”

That increased heft may attract more government scrutiny of OMC and a hike in regulatory requirements. “There can be no assurances that the combined company will be successful or that we will realize the expected operating synergies, cost savings or other benefits currently anticipated from the Merger,” reads the 10-K

Wren and his management team have their work cut out for them.

Sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein may have been a fan of this website or a buyer of our sister publication, O’Dwyer’s Directory of PR Firms.

That's evident by the quality of the crisis managers and Hollywood PR people that he had contact with. How else could he have come up with the names of those uber-PR pros, other than resorting to the "bible of the PR industry."

The Hollywood Reporter ran the blockbuster story about Epstein’s PR connections.

It noted that Epstein “kept public relations professionals busy with crisis management work ever since the Palm Beach police first arrested him on prostitution charges in 2006.”

The counselors cited in the THR story could be enshrined in the spin doctor hall of fame. They include Dan Klores, Howard Rubenstein, Peggy Siegal, Merrie Spaeth, Mike Sitrick and Matthew Hiltzik.

Gary Baum wrote the article that was headlined: "Inside Jeffrey Epstein's Spin Machine: Hollywood's Top PR Kingpins Defended Him."

He noted that Epstein’s death isn’t the end of his gainful contributions to the spin industry. “With the Dept. of Justice’s latest document dumps, such consultants are freshly in demand among the hundreds of powerful people named in them,” he wrote.

The Epstein Files are gifts that keep on giving to the biggest players in the PR world.