Havas is acquiring Paris-based digital communications firm Fullsix for roughly $75m.
The advertising group has not made an acquisition of this scale in 15 years.
Fullsix was founded by Marco Tinelli and brought in about $67m in revenue last year. It has over 600 employees in France, Portugal, the UK, Spain, the US and Italy.
Yannick Bolloré, chief executive of Havas, said: “I am delighted to welcome all the Fullsix talents into the Havas family. We share common values and we both put innovation and integration at the heart of everything we do. I am confident that Marco and his team will further reinforce Havas’ expertise on behalf of our clients, and that Havas will provide Fullsix with a major new source of growth.”
Tinelli will continue to serve as president of Fullsix.
Meanwhile, Havas Group UK also has launched specialist digital performance unit Ecselis to combine technology, data, creative and media across UK Group.
A team of 60 staff will offer paid search, SEO, performance display, conversion rate optimisation (CRO), affiliate marketing and dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) service to the group’s clients.
Under the leadership of Ian Thomson as head of Ecselis UK, the unit will bring together media, technology, creative and data for a number of multi-channel performance products.
Paul Frampton, Group Managing Director, Havas Media Group UK, commented: “Ecselis will tackle the two biggest challenges in performance right now: being channel agnostic and ensuring that message and medium are fully intertwined.
