Publicis/Digitas Buys French Web Agency Business Interactif for $182 Million

Digitas, now owned by Publicis, took another step in its global expansion plan, and is buying out French Web agency Business Interactif for about $182 million. The pending acquisition will lead to the creation of Digitas France, and helps it build capabilities in key areas such as search optimization and e-mail marketing. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

FT: It values Business Interactif, which is listed on Euronext Paris, at a multiple of 15 times the $12 million of EBITDA forecast at the acquired company for 2007. It will be funded half in cash, half by the issuance of 2 million new Publicis shares.

“In context of a strong Google-DoubleClick and Microsoft-Atlas, scale is going to matter on the Internet more in the next three or four years than ever before,” said Digitas chairman David Kenny said. Kenny said Digitas would look to expand more in Europe and Asia, but indicated he was uninterested in buying small shops. Business Interactif had $38 million in revenue in 2006 and $530K in operating income. Details in release.

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