Google Sells Performics Search Marketing Unit to Publicis

Google has sold its DoubleClick Performics unit, the albatross that many said would sink Google’s credibility for owning a search marketing business that tries to influence search engine results.
Publicis Groupe will buy the Performics search marketing business for an undisclosed sum by the close of the third quarter of 2008.
Performics is one of the top search marketing services providers, helping advertisers boost their ad campaigns with greater insights into how people execute searches. Advertisers use Performics’ reporting and local platforms to boost sales.
Performics has over 150 SEM (search engine marketing) clients and employs nearly 200 search marketing specialists, with employees in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, Singapore and Beijing, as well as Hamburg, Germany, and Sydney, Australia.
Performics’ business model of optimizing search results on behalf of advertisers was one of the reasons search marketing experts originally opposed Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick.
Indeed, against this conflict of interest, Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan called for Google to sell the unit and in April, Google pledged to do so.
Performics will be used to support the VivaKi Nerve Center, in which Digitas, Starcom MediaVest, Denuo and ZenithOptimedia are working together to create better search performance marketing platforms.
The unit will be used to boost Publicis’ ad sales share in what Jupitermedia pegs as a $10 billion search market.