BRUSSELS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators said onThursday they had cleared the $35 billion merger of U.S.advertising agency Omnicom and French peer Publicis without conditions.
The deal would create the world's biggest advertising agencyable to compete better with online rivals such as Google and Facebook. Omnicom now ranks second behindleader WPP with Publicis in third place.
"The merged entity would be sufficiently constrained byseveral competitors, including large international advertisinggroups," the European Commission said in a statement. "Shouldthe merged entity increase its prices or decrease the quality ofits services, customers would have the ability to switch."
WPP (WPP)
