Second Law Firm Says It’s Suing Omnicom

BALTIMORE — A second class action shareholder lawsuit has been filed against Omnicom in the wake of the company’s recent downward slide in share price.

The law offices of Charles J. Piven, P.A., filed the action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the company and certain of its senior officers. The suit alleges that Omnicom violated federal securities laws by “issuing a series of materially false and misleading statements to the market” which had the effect of “articifially inflating” Omnicom’s shares.

An Omnicom spokesperson said the company had only seen the press release issued by the plaintiff’s law firm, but strongly disagrees with contents of the suit.

On Thursday, law firm Wolf Popper in New York said it filed suit against the Omnicom Group and several of its senior officers on behalf of everyone who bought common Omnicom stock between April 25, 2000 and June 11, 2002.

That class-action lawsuit, also filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charges that “Omnicom fraudulently and misleadingly reported growth in ‘organic’ revenue that included revenue generated by newly acquired companies and failed to disclose Omnicom’s future obligations relating to its prior acquisitions,” according to a statement from the law firm.

“All we’ve seen is the law firms’ own press release on its lawsuit so it’s hard for us to say anything at this time,” said an Omnicom representative Thursday. “I can say, however, that we completely disagree with what they said in their release.”