• by Joe Mandese , over 1 hour ago

After more than half a century of trading under the "IPG" ticker symbol, the Interpublic Group of Companies has officially been delisted by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Following the closing of its acquisition by Omnicom earlier this week, the consolidated company will continue to trade as "OMC" on the NYSE.

Omnicom was a relative late entry to public trading, launching its IPO in 1986 -- 15 years after IPG -- following the "big bang" merger of BBDO, Doyle Dane Bernbach and Need Harper Steers that formed Omnicom.

Papert Koenig Lois ("PKL")was the first U.S. agency to go public in 1962.

A year later, Foote, Cone & Belding went public sparking a wave of major agency public offerings, including Doyle Dane Bernbach (1964), Grey Advertising (1965), J. Walter Thompson (1969), and Interpublic (1971), which ultimately let to the public market capitalization that fueled the merger and acquisition activity that created the modern day agency holding companies.