170 YEARS OF CREATIVITY
1835: Charles Louis Havas founds the first information agency in France.
1968: The advertising consulting division, Havas Conseil, becomes a joint-stock corporation and rapidly expands its sphere of activities.
1975: Havas Conseil becomes the holding company for Eurocom, which brings together a variety of subsidiaries specializing in different trades in the communications sector.
Since the 1970s: The group has continued to expand in the sectors of communications consulting and purchasing space, both in France and abroad. It enlarges the scope of its activities to include every aspect of communications, as well as new communication technologies.
1991: Eurocom takes control of French advertising group RSCG, leading to the creation of the Euro RSCG Worldwide advertising network.
Early 1996: The company adopts the name of Havas Advertising and creates four divisions, the main division being the Euro RSCG global network, and sets up its corporate headquarters in New York in 1997.
1999: The MPG network is born, the result of the merger between Mediapolis and Média Planning, a Spanish company specializing in purchasing space and media consulting. Havas' interest in the MPG group, initially set at 45% of capital, was increased to 100% in May 2001. With MPG, Havas offers a broad range of media expertise in the main countries.
2000: Havas makes a takeover bid to buy Snyder Communications, Inc. This American firm, a provider of marketing and advertising services, had been organized around three branches: Bounty SCA Worldwide, Arnold Communications, and Brann Worldwide. Bounty joined the Euro RSCG Worldwide network to provide support in marketing trades; Arnold Communications merged with Campus, Havas' second advertising network, to create Arnold Worldwide Partners.
1998 until mid-2001: Havas adopts an aggressive acquisitions strategy to bolster certain global markets. Thus, along with MPG and Snyder, the group also acquired approximately one hundred specialized agencies in America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.
2002: After purchasing the "Havas" name, Havas Advertising adopts "Havas" as its corporate name during a joint shareholders' meeting.
2005: Vincent Bolloré, the first shareholder in the Havas group, becomes Chairman of the Board Directors.
2006: Havas achieves increasing annual revenue and records a substantial increase in net new business (ranked No. 1 in net new business by Lehman Brothers). Fernando Rodés Vilà is Chief Executive Officer of Havas since March 2006.
2007: Record Organic Growth.