Today some $50 million of the company's total $185 million worldwide billings come from the consumer unit.

Combined worldwide billings are estimated at $40 billion.

Y.& R.'s worldwide billings were $8 billion in 1994, according to Advertising Age.

Ayer says that its gross revenues last year, based on worldwide billings of $1.4 billion, were about $165 million.

During the next three decades their agency grew to lead the industry, with worldwide billings of more than $550 million.

Y.&R., which has worldwide billings of more than $6 billion, set up an office last year in Budapest.

Ayer's worldwide billings plunged 32 percent last year, to $931 million, according to Adweek.

And last year, worldwide billings were $3.3 billion, nearly double what they were five years ago.

The investment by Omnicom, which has worldwide billings estimated at $20.2 billion, is indicative of the intensifying interest in interactivity among the agency giants.

In the process, Interpublic's agencies added half a billion dollars in net new business, increasing their worldwide billings to more than $9 billion.