To Digitas, Razorfish, VivaKi and Publicis Modem, add Rosetta. Publicis, one of the big four global advertising groups, is buying the Princeton, NJ-based interactive marketing consulting firm.
Twelve-year-old Rosetta jumps the digital proportion of Publicis’ income from 28 percent, as it was last year, to 30 percent. Publicis is targeting 35 percent within three years. Publicis is spending an initial $575 million in cash on Rosetta with a further earn-out in 2014.
“Not only should we best serve our clients and attract new ones, but we should also accelerate our transformation and grow faster,” Publicis CEO Maurice Levy says in the announcement. Rosetta, with 1,100 staff, expects 2011 revenue to approach $250 million.
Meanwhile, Publicis’ Digitas has formed a relationship with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) by which it will share the search site’s data about mobile search and shopping trends with its advertising clients.
“Over the course of the year, our collaboration with Digitas will look at a range of mobile trends to better understand how the advancement of mobile technology and smartphone adoption impacts consumer behavior,” Google’s ad agency business development MD Torrence Boone writes on a blog.
Google and Publicis have been cooperating since 2007.
Another “meanwhile” – WPP Digital is investing $5 million for a minority stake in nPario, whose services help clients analyse large chunks of consumer data. WPP will plug in to nPario data from its Media Innovation Group and Kantar, with the aim of giving WPP quicker insight in to data-driven audience insights. Release.