The ad world was in a bit of tizz last year when it was announced that the world’s second and third largest holding companies, Publicis Groupe and Omnicom, would merge to create the world’s biggest holding company and knock WPP off its perch. When we spoke to DDB NZ and Australia chair Marty O’Halloran at the time, he said the US$35 billion mega merger (the companies had combined revenue of around US$23 billion in 2012​) was unlikely to impact too heavily on this market. And it definitely won’t impact on this market now, because the lovers called the massive deal off late last week. Here’s a rundown of what the two parties and the international media are saying.