Publicis Confirms $4bn Epsilon Buy

Global marketing group Publicis has agreed to acquire US data company Epsilon from Alliance Data Systems Corp for $3.95 billion.

Epsilon, which includes digital marketing specialist Conversant, formerly ValueClick, generated $1.9 billion of net revenue in 2018, 97% of it in the United States. The firm employs around 9,000 people, including 3,700 data scientists, and 2,000 technology delivery experts based in Bangalore, India. Its offer includes onboarding client first party data, enriching it with the company's own proprietary data assets, unique ID customer profiling and campaign activation.

The management board of Publicis, which announced at the beginning of April it was considering the buy, described it as a 'one-time opportunity'. Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun said Publicis would now be able to help clients transform to meet the 'new market imperative' to deliver personalized experiences at scale; while Alliance Data President and CEO Edward J. Heffernan said Publicis was 'The right home for Epsilon's technology, data assets and associates'.

Web sites: www.publicisgroupe.com and www.epsilon.com .