The mad dash by the world's largest advertising holding groups to beef up their digital assets continued on Thursday as the Publicis Groupe, based in Paris, announced it had acquired LBi, a big digital agency based in Amsterdam. In the all-cash deal, Publicis spent 416 million euros, or about $540 million, to buy the shares of LBi.
This purchase is latest in a series of acquisitions of digital agencies by Publicis; others include Digitas, Razorfish and Rosetta. Holding groups like Publicis, the Omnicom Group, WPP and the Interpublic Group of Companies are eager to increase their presence in the digital space as consumers and marketers increasingly clamor for all things digital.
There had been speculation in recent months that the Publicis Groupe and Omnicom had been closing in on LBi because LBi was among the few remaining big, independent digital agencies.
LBi has about 2,200 employees who work at 32 offices in 16 countries, including the United States. Marketer clients of LBi include Coca-Cola, Ikea, Johnson & Johnson and Volvo.
“The acquisition of LBi is another step forward in further strengthening our digital operations,†Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of the Publicis Groupe, said in a statement.
Luke Taylor, chief executive of LBi, said in a statement that being acquired would enable LBi to “accelerate our strategic plans aimed at providing clients with a globally integrated offering.â€
Among the other big digital agencies that have been acquired recently are AKQA, Big Fuel, Firstborn and Rosetta.
Stuart Elliott has been the advertising columnist at The New York Times since 1991. Follow @stuartenyt on Twitter and sign up for In Advertising, his weekly e-mail newsletter.
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