French advertising and communications giant Publicis Groupe has acquired Mumbai-based Beehive Communications, for an undisclosed amount, the company said in a release.
Founded in 2003, Mumbai-headquartered Beehive provides reputation management, media, digital, brand activation and research services. The firm’s clientele includes over 50 brands and companies like Jubilant Retail run Total Superstore, Hard Rock Café, Malaysia Tourism, General Motors, Korea Tourism, Indiabulls Finance and Bisleri. The agency, which has 130 employees, also has a presence in Delhi and Bangalore.
Post acquisition, Beehive will be re-branded as Publicis Beehive and will operate as a unit within Publicis Worldwide's global network. Under Beehive founder and CEO Sanjit Shastri, the current leadership team will continue to lead the agency and will now report to Nakul Chopra, CEO of South Asia for Publicis Worldwide.
"Beehive brings both scale and strategic value to Publicis’ offering in India. Coming on the heels of our earlier moves, this is another significant step towards realising our goal of being counted among the top agency networks in India," said Chopra.
Publicis Groupe’s services include digital media (DigitasLBi, Razorfish, Rosetta, VivaKi), creative services (BBH, Leo Burnett, Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi), public affairs, corporate communications & events (MSL GROUP), media strategy, planning and buying (Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia) and healthcare communications (Publicis Healthcare Communications Group). The group is present in 108 countries and employs 60,000 professionals.
Publicis aims to double its size in India by 2015 and it has been acquiring a number of companies in the country as part of the expansion strategy.
The new acquisition marks Publicis Groupe’s seventh acquisition in the country since mid-2012. The other six acquisitions are Indigo Consulting (April 2012), Resultrix (August 2012), MarketGate (December 2012), iStrat (December 2012), Convonix (March 2013) and Neev (April 2013).
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
