Rosetta Marketing Group

Publicis to Acquire Rosetta for $575 Million By Eric Pfanner May 17, 2011 PARIS — Publicis Groupe of France bolstered its already substantial investment in Internet advertising on Tuesday, saying it had agreed to buy Rosetta Marketing Group, one of the biggest independent digital marketing agencies in the United States, for at least $575 million. Publicis, which owns ad agencies like Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi, has moved more aggressively than many of its rivals in expanding its digital capabilities, betting that spending on Internet marketing will continue to gain market share from more traditional forms of advertising. The planned deal for Rosetta is its third major digital acquisition, after the purchase of Digitas for $1.3 billion in 2006 and Razorfish for $530 million in 2009. “The transformation of the advertising market will be colossal,” Maurice Lévy, the chief executive of Publicis, said in a conference call. Rosetta, based in Hamilton, New Jersey, specializes in areas like search engine advertising and direct marketing, and also has a strong position in the health care business, already an area of focus for Publicis. Rosetta’s clients include Bristol Myers Squibb; Hewlett-Packard; Johnson & Johnson; Research In Motion, the developer of the BlackBerry; and the T-Mobile division of Deutsche Telekom.