Publicis acquired Irish-founded e-commerce analytics business Profitero for €200m in 2022.

French communications giant Publicis Groupe has acquired US data company LiveRamp for $2.2bn in a major push towards agentic advertising services.

The California-based data platform allows cross-collaboration between thousands of publisher, technology and data partners. It enables data co-creation – a process by which companies can connect multiple data sources across partners in a secure environment.

The acquisition will allow the 1926-founded Publicis to access new opportunities in AI services and expand its addressable market, it said, adding that for LiveRamp, the deal marks additional investment, and the opportunity to scale and expand its capabilities.

The all-cash deal is based on an acquisition price of $38.50 per share, adding a near 30pc premium to LiveRamp shares’ closing price on 15 May, Publicis said. The transaction also includes acquired net cash of $379m.

The deal is expected to close before the end of the year, following which LiveRamp will continue to be led by its current CEO Scott Howe. Howe will report to Publicis CEO and chairperson Arthur Sadoun.

“LiveRamp joining Publicis Groupe is the latest demonstration of our commitment to investing in new talent and innovation, ahead of market shifts,” said Sadoun.

“By building the future of data co-creation, we’re empowering our clients to generate new, exclusive and proprietary data, to build the smartest, most differentiated AI agents on top of the leading large language models.

“It will be valuable for our clients’ business growth and a new addressable market for Publicis.”

The company expects a 7-8pc growth in net revenue for 2027 and 2028 as a result of the acquisition.

Earlier this year, Sadoun told the Financial Times that the company has invested around €14bn in data and technology over the past decade.

Early investment in AI tools has helped the company expand business at a time when the media and creative industries are shrinking, he said.

The LiveRamp acquisition follows a $4.4bn purchase of data specialist Epsilon in 2019 – the French advertising giant’s largest ever. In 2022, the company snapped up Irish-founded e-commerce analytics business Profitero for €200m.

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