It’s been, in his own words, an “annus horribilis” for Maurice Levy and Publicis Groupe in 2014 – the collapse of the merger with Omnicom, poor trading and a sceptical market reaction to his latest wheeze, paying $3.7bn for digital outfit Sapient.
But the old boy’s a trouper and here he is chewing the fat with Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam and Italian banker Carlo Messina at one of Bloomberg’s ‘Leaders’ Lunches.’
As ever, Levy is good value. But, rather like his ancient enemy WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell, you wonder how anyone else will be able to take over a company so much in his image. Maybe the two of them will go on for ever so nobody will have to.
