When Havas and Horizon Media launched Horizon International on Monday, an impartial three way partnership between the 2 rival company teams, it was an indication of the occasions.
The tie-up underscores the stress going through mid-tier networks in a consolidating market. Omnicom’s $13.5 billion acquisition of IPG, anticipated to shut earlier than the top of the 12 months, will slender the sphere of world media giants whereas creating a brand new largest participant. Publicis started consolidating its media enterprise greater than a decade in the past. In the meantime, WPP is restructuring its media arm by merging operations throughout its businesses, and the way forward for Dentsu’s worldwide enterprise hangs within the stability.
Horizon and Havas—every sturdy of their house markets however smaller on the worldwide stage—see the three way partnership as a approach to compete for international media briefs they might in any other case battle to win.
Working out of New York and Paris, Horizon International manages $20 billion in billings and has a presence in additional than 100 markets. The brand new entity additionally scales every company’s entry to knowledge by merging Horizon’s Blu platform with Havas’ Converged.AI right into a unified system known as BluConverged.
The JV highlights the stress on independents and mid-sized networks to develop as media critiques balloon in dimension. Up to now 12 months, manufacturers together with Bayer ($720 million), Mars ($1.7 billion) and Coca-Cola ($785 million) have launched launched sprawling critiques that require international scale and cross-market coordination.
Horizon International is an acknowledgement that consolidation is reshaping the market. “Shopper centricity…has been an enormous driving pressure for us,” stated Peter Mears, Horizon International board member and international CEO of Havas Media Community.
Bulking up
Led by Horizon president Bob Lord as interim CEO and Havas’ Renata Spackova as COO, Horizon International will function independently from each businesses beneath a single P&L. Lord and Spackova will report back to a board led by Mears, Horizon founder and CEO Invoice Koenigsberg, and Havas chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré. Havas and Horizon will break up income from the JV equally.
Whereas the objective is to compete globally, Horizon International’s candy spot will likely be U.S.-centric purchasers with international attain—enterprise Horizon couldn’t credibly win by itself, however now can assist with Havas’ worldwide footprint.
Horizon International can also be a knowledge and tech scale play. Combining each businesses’ knowledge platforms “permits us to run a a lot leaner operation from a human perspective than a few of our opponents are,” stated Mears.
Lord added that on the subject of tech, Horizon International’s “open ecosystem” strategy lets it plug in instruments from Amazon, Google, and Adobe: “An open ecosystem spurs innovation. A closed ecosystem stifles it,” he stated.
Most significantly, the brand new construction provides purchasers working throughout geographies “one throat to choke,” as Lord put it. He pointed to airways and footwear as areas the place Horizon International sees near-term alternative—although the company declined to substantiate whether or not it’s in any energetic pitches.
A brand new terrain
Horizon International displays the truth going through many midsize networks that want extra scale to compete for international media accounts. With Horizon’s U.S. heft and Havas’ worldwide attain, each are betting that becoming a member of forces can win them a seat at greater tables in a market with fewer choices. Mears stated 2025 has been sluggish for brand spanking new enterprise, however that its trying like “a really busy fall and a busy Q1 2026.”
Business analyst Brian Wieser, nonetheless, stated the JV solely opens doorways to a slender set of critiques that require each U.S. heft and a small international footprint.
“There’s going to be some subset of entrepreneurs who’re primarily U.S.-based, who’re massive and have comparatively small international operations, and solely need to appoint one company,” he stated. “In that slender set of circumstances, they could get right into a pitch that they might have in any other case [not].”
Requested if Horizon International narrows the hole with mega-holdcos, Wieser was blunt: “By no means. If the worldwide half have been huge, you’re not contemplating Horizon or Havas within the first place.”
Whereas each firms see Horizon International as a long-term play, Lord stated there’s room to evolve the supply, together with potential acquisitions down the road.
“Due to the way in which that we’ve set this three way partnership up, it provides us quite a lot of flexibility for what’s going to come sooner or later,” he stated. “Are there property that we need to pull into this JV?”
By becoming a member of forces, Horizon and Havas are acknowledging that in the event that they need to chase huge, international media purchasers, going it alone is not an possibility.
