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PARIS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Publicis has agreed tobuy 20 percent of Israel-based digital advertising companyMatomy Media Group for 227 pence per share, and has anoption to purchase another 4.9 percent.
Matomy's shares closed at 238 pence on Friday, valuingPublicis' 20 percent stake at around 42.6 million pounds($68.5million).
As major companies shift more of their spending to onlinemarketing, advertising agencies like Publicis and its largerrivals WPP and Omnicom have been snapping upstart-ups to gain technological know-how.
The deal also shows how Publicis is seeking to boost growthafter the failure in May of its mega-merger with Omnicom hurt second-quarter performance.
Matomy, which counts American Express and HSBC among itsclients, specializes in so-called performance-based advertisingthat allows big companies to track the effectiveness of theironline marketing. It only earns a fee from advertisers when itachieves certain pre-defined measurable results, such as salesor mobile app installations.
Matomy made its stock market debut on the London StockExchange in July, with a listing price of 227 pence per share.Its shares were 233.9 pence at 0743 GMT, while shares ofPublicis were down 0.8 percent at 51 euros.
Matomy posted 117.34 million pounds in sales last year, anda net profit of 4.44 million pounds. In the first half of thisyear, sales grew 9.5 percent to $107.6 million.
"Matomy is fueled by the innovators and technology expertsof Israel and has quickly risen to the top of this importantmarket by creating a world leading, state of the art platform,"said Publicis Chief Executive Maurice Levy in a statement.
French bank Rothschild advised Matomy's core shareholders onthe sale.
(1 US dollar = 0.6204 British pound)(1 US dollar = 0.6222 British pound) (Reporting by Leila Abboud; Editing by Alexandria Sage andSusan Thomas)
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