Publicis Groupe to buy data marketing firm Epsilon for $4-4 billion

Publicis will get access to Epsilon’s data capabilities with the acquisition.

Publicis, the multinational French ad holding company, has reportedly announced that it will pay about $4.4 billion to acquire Epsilon, the marketing services company, and expand the company’s digital marketing expertise and help clients to better personalize their advertising.

According to Yahoo Finance, the deal of Publicis with Alliance Data Systems Corporation will entail the company to acquire Epsilon business for $3.95 billion. The total cost consideration after a tax step-up will be $4.4 billion. Publicis will get access to Epsilon’s data capabilities with the acquisition. Publicis will form a strategic collaboration with Alliance Data’s rest of the business.

The deal comes as tech giants like Facebook and Google are emerging into the advertising industry owing to huge growth in digital advertising. As per reliable sources, traditional ad spending is anticipated to be surpassed by digital ad spending in the U.S. for the first time this year. It has also been expected that digital will account for more than two-thirds of all media spending by 2030, cited sources.

Arthur Sadoun, CEO, Publicis Groupe, reportedly stated that an increasing pressure is being faced by the clients from the rise in the mainstreaming of direct-to-consumer brands, new data regulations and, consumer expectations. Transformation is necessary to meet the new market imperative, he further added.

Reportedly, major ad holding companies have grappled with whether to insource the data from providers or to own the data. Interpublic Group of Cos. has agreed to buy Acxiom’s Marketing Solutions for $2.3 billion, last summer. In 2016, Dentsu Aegis Network had acquired a majority stake in digital marketing company Merkle.

As per analysts, the companies like Acxiom or Epsilon may argue in a situation where privacy is increasingly significant, their capability to ethically source and scrub data is important and valuable to marketers.