Advertising giant WPP says its bid for the UK media buying group Tempus is now unconditional after 93.9% of Tempus shareholders accepted the offer.

But WPP stressed that the offer remained subject to two conditions - that the bid is cleared by competition authorities and a "no material adverse change" condition.

WPP bid 555p per share for Tempus, valuing the company at �432m.

Worries over the effects of a downturn in the advertising industry prompted rival bidder Havas Advertising to withdraw last month.

An unwanted victory?

Although WPP appears to have been successful in its bid for Tempus, there are increasing doubts that the company will want to go through with the deal.

The global economic slowdown has led hit the advertising sector hard and share prices in media companies have fallen.

WPP's offer for Tempus, which it made in August, is now seen as an extremely generous one, and some analysts believe it could be paying too much.

There has been much speculation that WPP will try and back out of the deal by using the "material adverse change" clause, as WPP launched its bid before the terrorist attacks in the US.

In early trade in London shares in WPP fell 5.7% to 455.5p, while shares in Tempus rose 12% to 490p.

Havas withdrawal

The French advertising agency Havas had been the first to launch a bid for Tempus when it offered 541p a share in August.

WPP responded with its offer of 555p a share and market watchers waited for the price to escalate.

But in September Havas pulled out of the race, blaming the economic slowdown and its effect on the advertising sector.

In a further sign of how badly the advertising sector has been hit, Havas has now reported a first-half loss of seven million euros (�4.3m) compared with a profit of 45m euros for the same period last year.

The company also gave a gloomy forecast for the rest of the year.

"All the indicators show that recession is more and more certain in the US and by extension the world, which signals that the second half will be difficult," Havas said.