A slumping economy may be a catastrophe for some, but for others there's always an opportunity. Witness remarks made by John Wren, president and CEO of Omnicom, who told analysts that he is hopeful that prices will start to sink to his "stark expectations."

"One positive side of the economic slowdown is a reduction in the financial buyers interested in our industry," Wren said. "Additionally, some of our competitors who have aggressively paid -- in our opinion -- uneconomic prices for some of their acquisitions have weakened their balance sheets and will be limited going forward in their ability to do acquisitions. As a result, we're hopeful that pricing will become more sensible, and we expect that we'll do more deals," Wren said.

Omnicom Group, the world's largest ad conglomerate, has largely shied away from snapping up companies deemed integral to the development of the digital space. At the same time, its competitors, WPP and Publicis Groupe, have spent heavily on firms like 24/7 Real Media and Digitas, respectively.

But Wren stopped short of identifying specific acquisition targets for Omnicom, saying only that they would aggressively pursue some prospects down the road.