The stinging attack came in an interview at the weekend with the Sunday Times newspaper. In it, the normally guarded French chief executive spoke openly about his feelings concerning last year鈥檚 bitter battle for media-buying group Tempus.
WPP was forced to buy Tempus after trumping Havas' original friendly 拢425m bid with a higher offer. WPP, which owned 22% of Tempus, was hoping the French group would come back with a higher offer.
But as the markets turned and began to tumble, the French group pulled out, leaving Sir Martin to pay the 拢434m price for Tempus. Sir Martin tried for weeks to get out of the deal, but in the end he bowed to City pressure and bought Tempus.
De Pouzilhac said: "It was one of the best pleasures of my life. There is nothing I hate more deeply than arrogance. Normally, it is the French who are arrogant but I have found one guy who is more arrogant than our entire nation put together."
However, despite winning the day, De Pouzilhac is left with the same problem he had before he launched his own bid for Tempus, namely that the Media Planning Group gives Havas limited global buying muscle.
WPP, on the other hand, has since successfully merged Tempus Group鈥檚 CIA with its own The Media Edge to create the world鈥檚 fourth-largest media-planning and buying group, Mediaedge:CIA.
De Pouzilhac went out to spell out his philosophy on the world's good guys and bad guys and was clear on what camp he thought Sir Martin fell into.
"You have good guys and bad guys in life and I think Sorrell is in the second category. For me, life is about ethics and values. You have to respect rivals and at least offer them a clean sheet from the start. We do not share the same values -- for me he doesn't exist," he said.
He also dampened speculation that Havas, which trails the much-larger Publicis and WPP, might make a major acquisition. The group has been linked to possible bids for media group Aegis, Cordiant Communications or Grey Global, the last of the three independent media groups.
"The only way we can grow our networks to where we want them is organic growth and acquisition. We are not in talks at the moment and are not looking for a big acquisition," he said.
However, he tempered this by saying that if the right opportunity came along, then Havas would have a look at it.
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