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August 6, 2008
Google Sells Performics to Publicis Groupe
Google has sold its Performics search marketing business to the Publicis Groupe.
Chicago-based Performics has about 200 employees in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, Hamburg, Sydney, Singapore and Beijing. The business will report into Curt Hecht, president of Paris-based Publicis' VivaKi Nerve Center. Hecht is the former EVP Chief Digital Officer, GM Planworks, a unit of Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG)
"Publicis Groupe has been a leader in the advertising industry for decades, and we believe Performics' growing business will benefit from being part of it," said Google Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in a statement. "We look forward to working with Performics as a partner."
The financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at August 6, 2008 1:50 PM
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Comments
Publicis being a French company, the correct French pronunciation of Performics is pair-fohr-MEEKS.
Congrats to the Performics team.
Posted by: Searchquant at August 6, 2008 5:19 PM
Publicis has stated that they want 25% of their overall revenue to come from digital by 2012, and this acquisition will help make that a reality. There’s not that many serious search marketing agencies that have the scale necessary to fit in with Publicis, it’s still a very fragmented market, so the Performics acquisition makes sense.
Plus, Google and Publicis have a long-standing cross-functional relationship, including sharing of executives and intellectual property.
Interesting that many smaller, traditional agencies totally eschew search marketing as “too complex” and “not worth it”. I wonder if this acquisition will change some minds in that regard?
Posted by: Jason Baer at August 6, 2008 6:45 PM
