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Universal and Initiative Merge Trading Units

Initiative Media and Universal McCann have merged their respective trading, negotiation and implementation functions under the one roof. The new business will trade under the Magna Ireland name.

The new business will be headed up by Steve Baker who takes on the role of trading director and it will operate from Initiative Media's office on Harcourt Road. It is also understood that the merger has led to a number of redundancies within both companies.

Both Initiative and Universal McCann will each have a 50% stake in Magna Ireland and the new business will have combined billings in the order of €100m a year.

While the Magna name has been around for the past six years - initially as a trading alliance between Universal McCann, Initiative and AFA O'Meara - the latest move consolidates the former two's trading business into a formalized structure.

According to Chris Rayner, managing director of Initiative, the decision to merge the trading parts of both businesses was designed to create a sufficient level of scale to allow it compete with other media trading businesses like Aegis, Group M and Core Media.