Turning to our results in the quarter, our net organic revenue growth in the third quarter was 15%.
That's against the third quarter of 2020 when, as you will all recall, our organic change was negative 3.7% due to the impact of the pandemic.
It's also important to note that our 2-year organic increase was 10.7% relative to the third quarter of 2019, which is a strong result.
Organic growth was 14.7% in the U.S. and it ranged between 11% and 20% in international regions.
Our IAN segment increased 14.4% organically with all major agencies contributing high single to double-digit percentage increases.
At our DXTRA segment, organic growth was 18.6% reflecting double-digit increases across each of our DXTRA agencies and furthering the rebound from the sharp impact of the pandemic last year on our sports and entertainment as well as experiential businesses.
Third quarter net income was $239.9 million as reported.
Our adjusted EBITDA was $369.5 million and our margin of adjusted EBITDA before restructuring was 16.3%, compared with 16.2% a year ago and 14.7% in the third quarter of 2019.
Third quarter diluted earnings per share was $0.60 as reported and was $0.63 as adjusted for the after-tax expense for the amortization of acquired intangibles and other items.
We now expect that we can deliver organic growth for the year of approximately 11% which is ahead of the 9% to 10% range we had previously indicated.
With growth at that higher level and given our strong results through the 9-months, we would therefore expect to achieve adjusted EBITA margin of approximately 16.8% which is an increase of 80 basis points over the level that we had previously shared with you.
Adjusted EBITDA before a small restructuring adjustment was $369.5 million and margin was 16.3%.
Diluted earnings per share was $0.60 as reported and $0.63 as adjusted for the after-tax impact of the amortization of acquired intangibles, a small restructuring adjustment and the net gain from the disposition of non-strategic businesses.
On October 1st, following the conclusion of the third quarter, we repaid our $500 million 3.75% senior notes from cash-on-hand further deleveraging our balance sheet.
Our net revenue in the quarter was $2.26 billion, an increase of $307.1 million from a year ago.
Compared to Q3 2020, the impact of the change of exchange rates was positive 1.1% with the U.S. dollar weaker than a year ago in all world regions, with the exception of LatAm.
Net divestitures were negative 40 basis points.
Our net organic revenue increase was 15% which brings us to 12% organic growth for the nine months.
Our IAN segment grew 14.4% organically.
At IPG DXTRA, organic growth was 18.6%, which reflects double-digit growth across public relations, experiential, sports and entertainment and branding disciplines.
In the U.S., which was 65% of our net revenue in the quarter, organic growth was 14.7%.
The organic revenue decreased a year ago was 2.4%.
International markets were 35% of our net revenue in the quarter and increased 15.4% organically.
You'll recall that the same markets decreased 6% a year ago.
The U.K. increased 13.3% organically, led by our offerings in media, data and tech, DXTRA, McCann and R/GA.
Continental Europe grew 11.8%.
Asia-Pac increased 17.4% organically, led by growth across most national markets notably, Australia, Singapore, India, the Philippines, China and Japan.
Our organic growth in LatAm was 20.3% with exceptional results in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile.
Our Other Markets group, which consists of Canada, the Middle East and Africa grew 17.1% organically, led by notably strong performance in Canada.
Our fully adjusted EBITDA margin was 16.3% compared with 16.2% a year ago and 14.7% in the third quarter of 2019.
As you can see on this slide, our ratio of total salaries and related expense as a percentage of net revenue was 66.8% compared with 65% in last year's third quarter.
Our approval for performance-based incentive compensation was 5.8% of net revenue and our expense for temporary labor, which was 5% of net revenue in the quarter.
We had strong leverage on our expense for base payroll, benefits and tax, which was 53.9% of third quarter net revenue, which reflects the benefit of our restructuring actions and the fact of the pace of hiring lagged our strong revenue growth, which has been the case in past economic expansions.
At quarter-end, total worldwide head count was approximately 54,600, an 8% increase from a year ago.
We have added net 4500 people year-to-date to support our growth.
Also, on this slide, our office and other direct expense decreased as a percent of net revenue by 250 basis points to 13.3%.
The ratio was 5% of net revenue.
We also reduced all other office and other direct expense by 120 basis points compared to last year, which reflects lower expense for bad debt and leverage as a result of our growth.
Our SG&A expense was 1.4% of net revenue with the increase from a year ago due to higher unallocated performance-based incentive expense and increased employee insurance, which was at a very low level last year.
Our expense for the amortization of acquired intangibles in the second column was $21.5 million.
The restructuring refinement in the quarter was a benefit of $3.5 million dollars.
Below operating expenses in column 4, we had a gain due to the disposition of certain non-strategic businesses, which was $1.7 million in the quarter.
At the front portion of the slide, you can see the after-tax impact per diluted share of these adjustments, was $0.03 per share, which bridges our diluted earnings per share as reported at $0.60 to adjusted earnings of $0.63 per diluted share.
Cash from operations was $390.2 million compared to $689.3 million a year ago.
We generated $79.6 million from working capital compared to $376.8 million last year, which was unusually strong seasonal result.
Investing activities is $72 million in the quarter, mainly for capex $61.3 million.
Financing activities used $153.3 million mainly for our dividend.
Our net increase in cash for the quarter was a $152.5 million.
We ended the quarter with $2.5 billion of cash and equivalents.
Under current liabilities, the current portion of long-term debt refers to our $500 million, 3.75% senior notes, which have matured since the balance sheet date and we repaid with cash on hand.
Our next maturity is $250 million to April 2024 and following that, there is nothing until 2028.
We're committed to setting a Science-based target and to reaching net zero carbon across our business by 2040.
We've also agreed to source a 100% renewable electricity by 2030 for our entire portfolio.
Most recently, a top-10 financial services company engaged Acxiom to build their unified enterprise data layer which again shows the strength and depth of Acxiom's technology expertise.
Also notable McCann Worldgroup named a new President and Global Chief Creative Officer who joins us from Nike where he served in senior brand marketing and creative leadership roles for more than 20 years, most recently leading Nike's men's brands globally.
And MullenLowe Group was named the number 2 most effective network globally, in both cases punching well above its weight against larger competitors.
During the quarter, the agency won the TJ Maxx creative account and just this week Mediahub won 3 Adweek Media Plan of the Year's awards as well as seeing it's U.K. office when global media duties [Phonetic] for Farfetch which is a luxury fashion e-commerce brand.
Jack Morton won new client assignments with Amazon and Twitch and along with Octagon Sports and Entertainment was listed among event marketers ranking of the top 100 event agencies of 2021.
Earlier on the call, we shared with you our perspective on the full year and our updated expectation that we will deliver approximately 11% organic growth and adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 16.8% for the full year 2021.

Summary:
Organic growth was 14.7% in the U.S. and it ranged between 11% and 20% in international regions.
Third quarter diluted earnings per share was $0.60 as reported and was $0.63 as adjusted for the after-tax expense for the amortization of acquired intangibles and other items.
We now expect that we can deliver organic growth for the year of approximately 11% which is ahead of the 9% to 10% range we had previously indicated.
With growth at that higher level and given our strong results through the 9-months, we would therefore expect to achieve adjusted EBITA margin of approximately 16.8% which is an increase of 80 basis points over the level that we had previously shared with you.
Diluted earnings per share was $0.60 as reported and $0.63 as adjusted for the after-tax impact of the amortization of acquired intangibles, a small restructuring adjustment and the net gain from the disposition of non-strategic businesses.
Our net revenue in the quarter was $2.26 billion, an increase of $307.1 million from a year ago.
At the front portion of the slide, you can see the after-tax impact per diluted share of these adjustments, was $0.03 per share, which bridges our diluted earnings per share as reported at $0.60 to adjusted earnings of $0.63 per diluted share.
Earlier on the call, we shared with you our perspective on the full year and our updated expectation that we will deliver approximately 11% organic growth and adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 16.8% for the full year 2021.