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Havas seeking True North?
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March 14, 2001: 7:01 p.m. ET
French ad firm and Interpublic reported dueling for $2 billion takeover
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The bidding war for True North is heating up, with both French company Havas Advertising and U.S. rival Interpublic Group of Cos. in discussions to buy the advertising firm for nearly $2 billion, press reports said Wednesday.
Havas has re-entered negotiations for the Chicago ad firm and a deal could be wrapped within the next week, the interactive version of the Financial Times said.
WPP, the world's largest ad group, was involved in discussions but it is unclear whether they are still interested, according to FT.com.
 Neither Havas, True North nor Interpublic could be reached for comment.
In January, reports emerged that Havas was interested in buying Chicago-based True North (TNO: Research, Estimates), which counts among its units the flagship ad agency FCB Worldwide. Recently, True North lost its biggest client, Daimler Chrysler Corp. (DCX: Research, Estimates), to Omnicom, which put True North on the auction block. Other True North clients include AT&T Corp. (T: Research, Estimates) and Tropicana. A deal for True North would increase Havas's lead over rival Publicis, the world's fifth-largest ad agency, FT.com said in January. Havas's $2.08 billion purchase last year of Snyder Communications helped it become the world's fourth-largest ad agency.
New York-based Interpublic (IPG: Research, Estimates) is a large organization of ad and marketing firms, which owns McCann-Erickson WorldGroup and Allied Communications Group.
Shares of True North fell by 2 cents to close at $37.50 Wednesday while Interpublic dropped 29 cents to $35.83. American depositary receipts (ADRs) for Havas (HADV: Research, Estimates) tumbled 72 cents to $13.56. 
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