Advertising titans Omnicom and Publicis have called off their $US35 billion ($A38 billion) merger, the deal bedevilled by corporate culture differences, regulatory issues and who would hold power in the combined firm.
After nine months of talks between the US and French companies on creating the world's largest advertising agency, the two sides said on Friday there were too many issues to surmount "within a reasonable timeframe", including tax and regulatory challenges.
But, despite what appeared to be a harmonious start to what was labelled a "merger of equals", there were signs of differences at the top over who would control the combined company.
Publicis chief executive Maurice Levy said the merger was a great idea that would have created a formidable operation if it had worked.
However, he added: "It is not a merger of equals if you have a CEO, CFO and general counsel only from one side."
The companies had difficulties "building a good balance" between executives from the two, Levy said.
"We felt a great risk of a dilution of Publicis's model," he added.
"We knew there would be differences in the corporate cultures of Omnicom and Publicis," Omnicom CEO John Wren said.
"But I know now that we had underestimated the depth of these differences."
The work on the merger, which apparently failed to settle a necessary accounting and structural formality of which company would buy the other, had become a distraction from day-to-day business as well.
"The challenges that still remained to be overcome, in addition to the slow pace of progress, created a level of uncertainty detrimental to the interests of both groups and their employees, clients and shareholders," the two companies said in a statement.
The merged company would have been the world's biggest in advertising, with 130,000 employees and revenue of more than $US28 billion ($A30 billion).
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