Publicis to Buy Microsoft's Razorfish Ad Unit for $530 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 10, 2009 - 7:36am.

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced on Monday that it has sold its Razorfish digital marketing agency to France's Publicis Groupe, in a deal valued at $530 million. Founded in 1995 as Avenue A, the Seattle-based company raised $48 million in an IPO in 1999, and went through a series of acquisitions before being purchased by Microsoft in 2007.

Razorfish provides digital marketing and media buying and consulting services to clients including AT&T, Best Buy, CondeNet and Disney.

"The acquisition of Razorfish is another step forward in realizing our strategic vision of building a world leader in digital communications, a critically important space for our clients," said Publicis chairman and CEO Maurice Levy.

"When we complete this transaction, approximately a quarter of our annual revenues will come from digital communications, and we believe we have more capacity to grow with new clients."

Publicis counts some 44,000 employees worldwide, at ad firms including Saatchi & Saatchi, Starcom MediaVest and ZenithOptimedia.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/pljmj

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124992014359619833.html

http://www.publicis.com

http://www.razorfish.com