Publicis to Buy LiveRamp for $2.2 Billion in AI Data Push
The French advertising group will buy LiveRamp for $38.50 a share as it expands its data and AI capabilities for agent-driven marketing.
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Publicis Groupe has agreed to acquire LiveRamp Holdings for an enterprise value of $2.17 billion, strengthening the French advertising group’s data and AI capabilities in fast-growing markets including India, where it reported 11.7% organic growth in the first quarter.
For India, the acquisition could sharpen Publicis’ offer to brands, retailers, media companies and financial-services firms looking to combine first-party data, clean-room collaboration and AI-driven marketing in a privacy-conscious environment.
Publicis will pay $38.50 a share in cash for LiveRamp, representing a 29.8% premium to the company’s closing share price on 15 May, the last trading day before the agreement was announced.
The transaction represents an equity value of $2.55 billion and includes acquired net cash of $379 million.
The deal has been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to LiveRamp shareholder approval and regulatory clearances.
Publicis said the acquisition is intended to accelerate “data co-creation,” a model in which companies safely connect data with partners to build proprietary data assets that can support AI tools, customer insights and measurement.
The company said 93% of enterprises lack the right data for AI success, which, naturally, means the ad industry has found a fresh way to make data sound both broken and billable.
LiveRamp operates a data collaboration platform used by brands, retailers, media companies and data providers.
Publicis said the company connects more than 25,000 publisher sites and more than 500 technology and data partners across 14 markets. LiveRamp has about 1,300 employees and has recorded average annual growth of 13% over the past five years.
The acquisition builds on Publicis’ 2019 purchase of Epsilon, which gave the group a large identity and data platform.
Publicis said combining Epsilon’s identity services with LiveRamp’s clean rooms, data connections, marketplace and partner network will create a larger platform for data collaboration and AI model improvement.
“By building the future of data co-creation, we’re empowering our clients to generate new, exclusive and proprietary data, to build the smartest, most differentiated AI agents on top of the leading LLMs,” Publicis Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun said.
Sadoun said Epsilon helped clients shift from cookies to identity and regain control of their data from large digital platforms. He said LiveRamp will be used across Publicis’ operations, including Sapient, Epsilon and Marcel, to support clients at different stages of AI adoption.
LiveRamp CEO Scott Howe said joining Publicis would give the company “greater resources and flexibility to scale our business, continue innovating our platform, and help them unlock even greater value from their data.”
Publicis also raised its 2027 and 2028 constant-currency growth targets after announcing the deal. The group now expects net revenue growth of 7% to 8%, up from 6% to 7% earlier, and headline earnings per share growth of 8% to 10%, compared with its previous target of 7% to 9%.
The deal comes as Publicis has widened its lead over traditional advertising rivals by investing more heavily in data, technology and AI, and has overtaken WPP and Omnicom to become the world’s most valuable advertising group by market capitalization.
