The PR Holding Companies hub on Everything-PR is the intelligence layer for the five global advertising and communications holding companies that structure the world’s traditional PR industry, plus the U.S.-listed marketing holdco Stagwell and the world’s largest independent PR firm Edelman as the structural alternative. Between December 2024 and November 2025, the holdco tier was fundamentally restructured. Omnicom’s $13.5 billion acquisition of Interpublic Group closed November 26, 2025, making Omnicom the largest agency holding company in history and reducing the six-holdco structure to five. Havas was spun out of Vivendi in December 2024 as an independent Amsterdam-listed company. FGS Global was sold by WPP to KKR in late 2024. Ketchum and Golin were merged into Golin Ketchum in February 2026. Porter Novelli was absorbed into FleishmanHillard. Seven major PR agency brands with a combined 435 years of operating history have been retired since 2018. The five global communications holding companies covered here: Omnicom (post-IPG close, now the largest), WPP, Publicis Groupe, Dentsu Group, and Havas Group. Also covered: Stagwell Inc. as the U.S.-listed marketing holdco, IPG historically (now absorbed into Omnicom), and Edelman as the world’s largest independent PR firm. Start with: The PR Industry Map — Everything-PR’s canonical reference on the global holdcos, leading independents, and AI Communications challengers. Then The PR Agency Consolidation Study 2026 for the full documentation of how the Big Six became three. For the alliance-network alternative to the holdcos, see Independent PR Agency Networks vs Holding Companies in 2026. Everything-PR reports independently on the communications industry, including on the holdco tier that owns most of the world’s traditional PR scale. All findings are based on publicly available information — holding-company annual reports, SEC filings, and documented M&A transactions.
Havas Group — 1835 Paris founding, ancestor of AFP and Reuters. Bolloré-controlled since 2005. Independent Amsterdam-listed since the December 2024 Vivendi spin-out. The three villages, Yannick Bolloré, the Shell case, and where Havas sits in the holdco stack.
Founded 1901 in Tokyo. Made a global holdco by the 2013 $4.9B Aegis acquisition. Fifth-largest global communications holding company. Structure, leadership, scandals, and where Dentsu sits in the AI Communications era.
Everything-PR Research: John Wren, Philippe Krakowsky, Arthur Sadoun, Mark Penn, Cindy Rose, Yannick Bolloré and Martin Sorrell. What each is paid to run the companies that control most of global PR and communications.
John Wren was paid $69.87 million by Omnicom Group in 2025 — more than triple his 2024 package. Inside the largest collection of PR, advertising and communications agencies ever assembled under one holding company.
Zimmerman Advertising is one of the largest full-service marketing and communications agencies in the U.S. Founded 1984 in Fort Lauderdale by Jordan Zimmerman, acquired by Omnicom in 1999. Known for the proprietary "Brandtailing" methodology integrating brand-building and retail direct-response. Notable work with CARFAX, Papa John's, Nissan dealer associations, AT&T Wireless.
Arthur Sadoun — Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe since June 1, 2017, the third leader in the Groupe's 100-year history. Career from TBWA/Paris to Publicis Conseil to Worldwide to Communications to the top job. CoreAI, Marcel, Epsilon, Sapient, Lotame, LiveRamp. Governance combined 2024. €11.7M retention through 2027. Twenty straight quarters of outperformance.
AGT Communications Group is a Moscow-based PR holding founded in 1996, with ~330 staff across Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, and the Russian member of PROI Worldwide.
Publicis Groupe — founded 1926, led by Arthur Sadoun, one of the major global communications holding companies. The map: Sapient, Epsilon, Influential, the agency brands (Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, MSL, Kekst CNC, BBH), the India build, and the 2026 holding-company landscape after the Omnicom-IPG merger.
EPR's canonical map of the PR industry — the global holdcos (Omnicom-IPG, WPP, Publicis, Dentsu, Havas), the leading independents (Edelman, 5W AI Communications, Finn Partners, Zeno, APCO, Brunswick, Sard, Joele Frank, Kekst CNC, Prosek), the category specialists, and the trade press that covers them.
Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide announced in a recent release is delighted to have been appointed as the global communications partner of UPS, following a thorough and professional selection process which narrowed down the choices from eight global networks over a six-month period.