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IPG-Omnicom merger nears end; India leadership by Dec 2 | PUMA appoints Ramprasad Sridharan MD | Govt slams gaming firms in SC over PROGA
Storyboard18 brings you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.
In India too, insiders expect brand consolidation, leadership realignment, shared-services frameworks, and potential merging of parallel creative teams, especially where client rosters overlap across agencies.
Storyboard18 presents FAST FIVE ⬇
We bring you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.
IPG–Omnicom merger nears final phase, India leadership call expected by Dec 2
As the $13.5-billion merger between Omnicom and Interpublic Group (IPG) moves toward final closure, uncertainty has engulfed the India market — one of the world’s fastest-growing advertising hubs — over who will lead the media business and how the creative hierarchy will be structured.
Multiple senior executives across the two networks told Storyboard18 that the India organisation design remains “the most politically sensitive and commercially consequential” piece of the global integration puzzle.
PUMA appoints Ramprasad Sridharan as Managing Director
Sports company PUMA has appointed Ramprasad Sridharan as Managing Director of PUMA India. He will start his role in December 2025 and report directly to PUMA Chief Commercial Officer, Matthias Bäumer.
Sridharan brings over 25 years of experience in brand building across the Asia Pacific region, including digital growth and commercial strategy. Most recently, he was the CEO and Managing Director at United Colors of Benetton India, where he led large-scale transformation initiatives.
“Industry is blowing hot and cold”: Govt slams Gaming firms in SC over PROGA challenge
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the unregulated online money-gaming ecosystem poses significant risks to public order, national security and financial integrity, arguing that Parliament is fully empowered to enact the Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act (PROGA). The submission comes in response to a writ petition filed by Head Digital Works challenging the constitutional validity of the legislation.
NCLAT allows Meta, WhatsApp to redact confidential data from CCI penalty judgment
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in Delhi has granted permission to Meta Platforms and WhatsApp LLC to redact confidential commercial information from the public version of its November 4 judgment. That ruling upheld a ₹213 crore penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for abuse of dominance in the Over-The-Top (OTT) messaging market.
A bench, led by Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan, directed that specific portions of the judgment identified by the parties be removed from the publicly accessible copy and all certified copies. The tribunal also barred inspection of the redacted sections.
Deloitte accused once more of using AI-generated citations in $1.6 million report
Deloitte has again come under scrutiny after a Canadian provincial government’s healthcare report, commissioned for nearly $1.6 million, was alleged to contain multiple AI-generated errors, according to fresh reporting. This marks the second instance this year in which the consulting firm has faced accusations of incorporating AI-generated research and citations into official documents.
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