The French group Publicis is ramping up its investments in data and AI with the cash purchase of data collaboration platform LiveRamp for $2.2 billion, paid entirely in cash.
The proposed price, at $38.50 per share, represents a premium of about 30% versus LiveRamp’s closing price on the Friday before the announcement.
A New AI Offensive
Publicis chief executive officer Arthur Sadoun frames this acquisition as a lever allowing its clients to “generate new, exclusive, and proprietary data to build the most intelligent and differentiated AI agents based on leading large language models.”
The deal comes amid a seismic disruption across the advertising sector, where agencies face growing competition from AI-powered tools that can replicate many of their traditional offerings.
LiveRamp enables retail brands, financial institutions, healthcare providers, and other sectors to analyze data from multiple sources—including data from advertisers.
According to Publicis, integrating LiveRamp will give its clients bespoke data sets to improve the performance of their own AI systems. As an illustration of this synergy, the group notes the possibility of helping a bank develop a wealth-management AI agent that can cross-reference data from multiple sources to propose additional products to its customers.
The Biggest Deal Since the Epsilon Acquisition
This acquisition follows Publicis’ 2019 purchase of Epsilon for $4.4 billion, the largest transaction the company has ever completed. The financing for the LiveRamp deal will be provided through a combination of cash on hand and debt.
Scott Howe, LiveRamp’s chief executive, will remain in his role and report directly to Arthur Sadoun.
The boards of directors of both groups have approved the deal unanimously. The closing is expected before year-end, subject to shareholder approval and regulatory clearances.
