Publicis' Sapient buy to leverage Sapient's 65% workforce based in India

The technology giant's provides mainly back-office support and solutions to its clients located across the world

The $3.7-billion (Rs 22,200 crore) acquisition of US-based technology and digital marketing major Sapient Corporation by Paris-based Publicis Groupe has an India angle to it. As many as 8,500 employees of the technology giant's 13,000-strong workforce sits in India providing mainly back-office support and solutions to its clients located across the world.

On the digital advertising and marketing front, Sapient under SapientNitro has been looking to grow its presence in the country with the appointment of ex-Leo-Burnett-hand K V Sridhar as chief creative officer six months ago.

The digital marketing agency has so far done work for Citibank and some Coca-Cola India brands such as Sprite and Fanta.

However, what the acquisition gives Publicis is access to Sapient's technology and expertise in the area of digital marketing and advertising, which the Paris-based company is expected to deploy in countries such as India, considered an emerging market for digital agencies.

According to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry and PricewaterhouseCoopers, digital advertising revenue is expected to double from eight per cent in 2013 to 16 per cent in 2018. Currently pegged at Rs 3,000 crore, it will touch Rs 10,000 crore by 2018, the report notes.

The Publicis Groupe derives half its $9.5 billion (Rs 57,000 crore) revenues from digital alone. In India, the group has been consolidating its digital presence with acquisitions and launch of in-house agencies such as Razorfish. It's other key digital agencies in India are DigitasLDi and VivaKi. Publicis' fourth big digital agency Rosetta is not in India at the moment.

In December 2013, when Levy had visited India, he had said: "The size and scale of our digital operations has grown. In 2011, when I visited India, we had 100 people working in digital. Now we have 1,500 people working in digital in India. We are extremely solid on digital. We are well advanced in terms of position and innovation in digital. As far as emerging markets go, we have been faster in some countries as opposed to others. And we intend to continue with this."

Globally, Publicis will consolidate all its digital assets under Sapient. This new structure is expeted to be rolled out in India in the coming months, and Sridhar, who had moved out of the Publicis Groupe after qutting Leo Burnett, India, in April will get back into the network thanks to the Sapient acquisition.

He was not available for his comments when contacted.