Publicis Buys Wcube In Continuing Digital Agency Acquisition Race

Like WPP, advertising group Publicis Groupe (NYSE:PUB) continues to snap up digital agencies to bolster its online activity, this time buying Paris-based interactive house Wcube for an undisclosed sum. Wcube will be renamed Publicis Modem France. In December, Publicis bought ad network Digitas for $1.3 billion and, expanding Digitas’ Boston-based Modem subsidiary, is setting about growing the Publicis Modem digital imprint internationally. In June, it bought French agency Business Interactif for $182 million before acquiring China’s largest independent ad agency, Communication Central Group (CDG), a month later. Then last month the group bought Parisian mobile ad operator Phonevalley.

Wcube was founded in 1995 and its clients inclide Sprite and Jean-Paul Gaultier, with 60 employees. This means Publicis Modem has offices in San Francisco, London, New York, Connecticut and Paris, and a press release says
the global expansion will continue