The building Dentsu Aegis Network was based in 2019 in London.
On November 14, 2025, Dentsu Group announced its third-quarter results for the fiscal year ending in December. In discussing the company’s management over the past few years, it is impossible to ignore the 2013 acquisition of the Aegis Group for ¥400 billion. With an eye on a mature domestic market, this large-scale M&A aimed to pursue both “globalization” and a “digital shift.” However, the subsequent developments have not exactly gone smoothly. Ahead of the latest results, it is worth revisiting the factors behind its challenges.
Background of the Aegis Acquisition: Why Dentsu Aimed for “Global”
Revisiting the Acquisition Background
Limits and Saturation in the Domestic Market
One of the primary drivers behind the acquisition was the stagnation of Japan’s domestic advertising market. From the late 2000s, advertising spending in Japan had plateaued, and corporate marketing investments remained flat. With a declining population and long-term economic stagnation, it was clear that relying solely on the domestic market would eventually halt growth. At the time, Dentsu depended on the Japanese market for roughly 90% of its revenue, making the transition from a “domestic leader” to a “global player” an urgent priority.
The Digital Wave and Accelerating Global Competition
Another key factor was the digital shift in advertising. Platforms like Facebook, Google, and YouTube were rapidly emerging, and the focus of advertising was moving away from TV and newspapers toward digital channels. In the West, digital advertising capabilities were becoming a decisive factor for agency competitiveness, and Dentsu, heavily centered on the Japanese market, was clearly lagging behind.
Aegis was a European advertising group with notable strengths in the digital arena. Its subsidiaries, such as Carat and Vizeum, were renowned for their data-driven strategies and media-buying expertise, offering Dentsu the immediate “global × digital” capabilities it lacked.
Global Network and Acquisition of Global Clients
Headquartered in London, Aegis operated in over 100 countries across Europe, North America, and Asia. Its client roster included global brands such as Unilever, Mastercard, and Microsoft. The acquisition was therefore not merely about “scale”; it was a strategic move to instantly gain a network of global clients.
Through this deal, Dentsu leaped from the world’s fifth-largest advertising group to the third, aiming to transform into a “global holding company” beyond its domestic roots.
Pursuit of Discontinuous Growth and a “Now-or-Never” Decision
At the time, Dentsu saw the limits of organic domestic growth and sought discontinuous growth through M&A. The Aegis acquisition was the pinnacle of this strategy, with a price tag of approximately £3.16 billion (around ¥395.5 billion). CEO Naoki Ishii stated at the time:
“This is a strategic decision to create the next-generation Dentsu Group, centered on digital and globalization.”
Major Western advertising groups such as WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, and Interpublic were also accelerating restructuring, and Dentsu’s leadership reportedly feared that missing this timing would leave the company trailing in the global market.
Summary: A Rational Decision, But the Results Were…The Aegis acquisition addressed three simultaneous challenges:
- Limits of the domestic market
- Adapting to digital transformation
- Gaining a global network
It was, in theory, a rational move. However, the following decade revealed the difficulties of post-merger integration and the challenges of profitability: goodwill impairments, underperformance in overseas operations, and friction due to cultural differences. Behind the ambitious goal of “going global,” unexpected challenges began to accumulate.
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