MAM
OpenAI joins C2PA steering committee
Mumbai: The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) announced that OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence research and deployment, has joined the C2PA as a steering committee member. This marks a significant milestone for the C2PA and will help advance the coalition’s mission to increase transparency around digital media as AI-generated content becomes more prevalent.
Joining other steering committee members that include Adobe, BBC, Intel, Microsoft, Google, Publicis Groupe, Sony and Truepic — OpenAI will collaborate to further develop and promote the adoption of Content Credentials, an implementation of the C2PA’s open technical standard for tamper-resident metadata that can be attached to digital content, showing how and when the content was created or modified.
The announcement today builds on OpenAI’s previously shared initiatives to improve transparency around digital provenance. Earlier this year, OpenAI began attaching Content Credentials to images created and edited by DALL•E 3, the company’s latest image model, in ChatGPT and the OpenAI API. In addition, the company also announced its plans to attach Content Credentials to video generations from Sora, the company’s text-to-video model, when the model is ready to be deployed to the public.
OpenAI’s membership and implementation of Content Credentials serve as a strong endorsement for the C2PA technical specification and advance the collective mission to help restore trust in the digital ecosystem.
“C2PA is playing an essential role in bringing the industry together to advance shared standards around digital provenance,” said Anna Makanju, OpenAI’s VP of Global Affairs. “We look forward to contributing to this effort and see it as an important part of building trust in the authenticity of what people see and hear online.”
“OpenAI is a long-time supporter of the C2PA’s mission and we’re thrilled that they’ve deepened their engagement by becoming a Steering Committee member,” said Andrew Jenks, C2PA Chair. “OpenAI’s existing adoption, advocacy, and ongoing commitment to Content Credentials will bring an important voice to our membership’s working efforts to guide the development of the C2PA standard.”
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Omnicom Q4: Posts big revenue gains amid restructuring
Company trims underperforming units and launches $5B share buyback to reward investors.
MUMBAI: Omnicom has decided that in the world of global advertising, it is better to be a big fish in an even bigger pond. The marketing powerhouse, which recently swallowed its rival IPG, has kicked off 2026 by showing the market that it is not just buying growth – it is engineering it. In a series of bold strategic manoeuvres, the group has doubled its projected cost-savings target to a whopping $1.5 billion over the next three years.
The fourth-quarter results for 2025, released on 18 February 2026, paint a picture of a company in the midst of a massive structural makeover. Reported revenue for the quarter shot up 27.9 per cent to $5,528.8 million, a figure heavily bolstered by the first full month of IPG’s operations under the Omnicom umbrella. For the full year, revenue reached $17,271.9 million, marking a 10.1 per cent increase as the company integrated heavyweights like Acxiom Real iD and Flywheel Commerce Cloud into its next generation Omni platform.
However, bigger does not always mean tidier. The group reported a Gaap net loss of $941.1 million for the final quarter, or $4.02 per diluted share. This was primarily due to a massive $1.1 billion bill for severance and real estate repositioning, alongside a $543.4 million loss on the sale of non-strategic businesses. When these one-off integration headaches are stripped away, the underlying performance looks far more robust, with adjusted net income reaching $607.7 million and earnings per share of $2.59, comfortably ahead of the prior year’s $2.41.
The group is also trimming the fat elsewhere. Management has identified underperforming and non-strategic units representing approximately $2.5 billion in revenue for exit or sale. Meanwhile, smaller majority-owned markets bringing in $700 million are being moved to minority positions. This portfolio pruning is designed to focus the New Omnicom on higher-growth areas like media, creative content, and data-driven consulting.
Investors, it seems, are being kept sweet with a significant return of capital. The board has approved a fresh $5 billion share repurchase program, initiating an immediate $2.5 billion accelerated buyback. This comes on top of $549.6 million paid out in common dividends during the year.
Performance across the sectors was a mixed bag but generally positive in the heavy-hitting divisions. Media and advertising revenue surged 34.4 per cent in the fourth quarter to $3,322.6 million, while public relations grew 12.4 per cent to $500.8 million. On the flip side, branding and retail commerce saw a 7.0 per cent dip. Regionally, the US remains the engine room, with revenue jumping 51.9 per cent to $2,869.1 million in the quarter, while the UK saw a respectable 18.8 per cent rise to $533.2 million.
With a total debt of $9.1 billion following the IPG acquisition, the group is leaning on its cash-generative nature to keep its investment-grade credit rating intact. Free cash flow for the year stood at $2,226.1 million, up from $1,964.7 million in 2024. As the company moves into 2026, the focus is firmly on the Connected Capability model, essentially ensuring that its global army of talent is pulling in the same direction, and more importantly, within a much leaner budget.
