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Iain McDonald - Founder Amnesia Razorfish
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Digital agency Amnesia Razorfish has been sold to the Publicis Groupe, after the France-based marketing services paid US$530 million (A$631m) in a global deal to buy Razorfish from Microsoft in a bid to boost its share of advertising online.
Iain McDonald, founder and director at Amnesia Razorfish said it was business as usual for the firm. But he did not know what if any plans are in place to merge it with Publicis’ fledgling digital shop Digitas, which was launched in Australia earlier this year by former Carat managing director Mandy Henry.
He said: “We have been looking for where our final home will be, it’s nice to see we have got somewhere where there is likely to be a little less speculation going forward.
“For us, of all the holding groups, Publicis are probably most closely aligned to our way of thinking. The news that we are going to be independently operated is good news.
“Publicis have expressed support and belief in the way it’s being done and don’t want to change anything.”
On any possible merger with Digitas, McDonald said: “That was the first question that jumped into my mind. We haven’t had any instruction on that locally. We are just continuing on day to day business. I can’t see too much changing. I would imagine that globally we will continue to compete.”
Mandy Henry, managing director of Digitas had not returned calls at the time of writing.
Under the terms of the global cash and shares deal, Microsoft will take around a 3% stake in Publicis. In addition a five-year agreement has been reached in which Publicis will buy display and search advertising from Microsoft at favourable terms.
According to a global statement, Razorfish will operate under the VivaKi banner, the entity established last year to house the independent operations of Digitas, Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo.
"The acquisition of Razorfish is another step forward in realising our strategic vision of building a world leader in digital communications, a critically important space for our clients," said Maurice Levy, chairman and chief executive of Publicis Groupe.
"More than anything, this acquisition should demonstrate that Publicis Groupe now presents a wider pool of resources, talent and expertise that will help our clients market their products or services in a way that takes maximum advantage of the new digital world."
Razorfish became part of Microsoft's umbrella as part of the company's US$6 billion acquisition of aQuantive in 2007.
