Havas was France's oldest ad agency — then it was split, sold, and reassembled three times

Havas, founded in 1835 as a news agency, was France's oldest and most prestigious advertising and media company. By the 1990s it had grown into a conglomerate: advertising (Euro RSCG), media (Canal+), and publishing. In 1997, Jean-Marie Messier took over and began a series of acquisitions and divestitures that would reshape the company.

Messier's strategy was to transform Havas into a global media giant. He acquired Universal Studios' international assets, merged with Vivendi, and renamed the group Vivendi Universal. The advertising arm — Euro RSCG — was spun off, rebranded, and eventually reabsorbed. The company was split, sold, and reassembled three times in a decade.

The brand survived, but the culture did not. The agency that had been France's advertising institution became a subsidiary of a global holding company. The trade tells the story as the definitive case of what happens when a media conglomerate treats its advertising arm as a financial asset rather than a creative institution.