Business: Merger on Madison Avenue

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Interpublic's latest acquisition reflects an accelerating trend toward bigness in the ad business. Part of the reason is that large multinational clients need agencies that can supply a broad range of services from ad production to test marketing worldwide. At the same time, there will probably always be a place for the nimble, specialized "boutique" ad shops that live mainly on their creative flair. The losers in the shifting pattern are likely to be the middle-size full-service agencies that are not big enough to compete with the leaders and not agile enough to beat out the small fry. In the future, predicts Interpublic President Philip Geier Jr., "there will be a lot of large companies and a lot of small ones." And Interpublic, he believes, will stay at the top.