After failed Omnicom merger, Publicis could acquire Criteo

All eyes are on the advertising sector in France after LesEchos reported that Publicis was in discussions to acquire Criteo last Friday. While acquisition talks are said to be ailing over an inability to agree on a price, the news sent Criteo’s stock up 25%, closing trading above $36.00 per share. As we noted last month, Criteo has been largely undervalued by Wall Street, as investors have continued trouble discerning the niche differences in various advertising technologies, with a general murmur that consolidation is inevitable in the upcoming future. The Publicis-Criteo acquisition rumor has also played well for other “AdTech” stocks like RocketFuel (largely considered Criteo’s benchmark competitor on Wall Street). Publicis definitely has the cash to shell out for Criteo, after the $50 Billion merger with Omnicom reported last year fell apart in recent months due to differences of opinion about executive control. Just las month Advertising company AppNexus announced that they had raised a $50 Million round of funding at an incredible $1.2 Billion valuation. The company acquired French startup Alenty earlier this year.