THE DEAL: In a combination of major advertising agencies, Dentsu Inc. of Japan agreed to buy Aegis Group PLC of Britain for about $5 billion.

THE COMBINATION: Aegis is based in London, and Dentsu said it does a lot of businesses in the U.S. and Europe, with a growing position in emerging markets and recent strength in Asian countries outside of Japan. Dentsu says Aegis had about $15.35 billion in consolidated revenue in 2011. Dentsu gets 84 percent of its revenue from Japan.