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Business Insider
22 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Ad giant Publicis is shopping for AI companies. Here are 6 targets industry insiders think could be on its wish list.
French advertising giant Publicis Groupe is flying high. Now, it plans to go shopping. Last week, Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun said his company was "doubling down" on its AI strategy by "further accelerating on bolt-on acquisitions." Bolt-on acquisitions refer to targeted purchases that reinforce its existing companies and operations, rather than transformative deals that would shift Publicis into an entirely new area of business. Publicis, the advertising industry's top performer by revenue, has already spent around 600 million euros, around $705 million, on acquisitions this year, and has set aside a further 300 million euros for M&A in the second half. Across Madison Avenue, companies are grappling with how to harness AI to offer new services to clients while trying to prevent the tech from upending their existing businesses. Publicis said in 2024 it intended to invest 300 million euros over the following three years in its AI strategy, which centers on an internal platform called Core AI. What will it buy? Tristan Rice, head of the European M&A practice at advisory firm SI Partners, said Publicis would likely make some early, speculative bets on emerging tech. That would help it avoid an intense bidding war once an acquisition target scales up. The pitch to startup founders, Rice said, is that Publicis' client base can help fuel the growth of their business. The agency group would also likely put a long earn-out on the table with the aim of enabling the founders to realize more value from the sale over time, he said. Business Insider spoke with five advertising and M&A insiders, who shared their predictions on what Publicis could target. Here were a few themes: AI startups with expertise in creating agents to handle the workflow of marketing campaigns Companies that use AI to transform big data into useful analysis Other technologies that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agency disciplines, such as content production or strategy They also named some particular marketing-focused AI startups they think could be on Publicis' radar. (This doesn't mean that Publicis is in conversations with these startups.) A Publicis spokesperson declined to comment. AI-powered ads could come from Persado or Superscale AI Brands ranging from Toys "R" Us and Coca-Cola to Kalshi have used AI to create TV ads, with mixed consumer responses. But generative AI tech has been constantly improving, helping to reduce the time and costs involved in creating campaigns. Karsten Weide, principal and chief analyst of W Media Research, said Persado might interest Publicis. The company automates the production of marketing messaging based on emotional triggers and other data. Founded in New York in 2012, Persado has raised $86 million in funding to date. Weide said Persado's tech could be combined with Publicis' Epsilon data arm to help it create more personalized and persuasive marketing messaging. Persado president Assaf Baciu said that while advertising companies would be wise to seek out AI solutions as a point of differentiation, the company has expanded its capabilities beyond the advertising sector into areas such as financial services. Elsewhere, Superscale AI could be an interesting fit for Publicis, said Andrew Buckman, chief growth officer of the adtech company Azerion. The startup pitches itself as a kind of "AI CMO." It allows brands to enter the URL for the product they want to sell and then can almost instantly generate a campaign for TikTok or Instagram using a library of realistic AI-generated actors and characters. Superscale raised a $5 million pre-seed funding round in June, led by the VC firm Creandum. Superscale cofounder Patrick Haede said that while the company was not considering being acquired, he understood why it might be identified as a potential target. "AI capabilities will fundamentally transform advertising in every possible way, especially in terms of content generation, in which we are building a leading platform," Haede said. AI agents built by Newton Research or Akkio could be of interest OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that 2025 will be the year that AI agents"join" the workforce, as companies embrace the trend. AI agents generally refer to virtual assistants that can complete tasks autonomously. Startups are betting that AI agents will be big in the advertising space, too. Ana Milicevic, principal of the digital consultancy Sparrow Digital Holdings, said Newton Research is "already making a lot of headway with agencies." It creates AI agents to handle data science projects and also works with brands and publishers. Newton Research's founder and CEO, John Hoctor, was behind the media-measurement company Data Plus Math, which was sold to the publicly listed data company LiveRamp in 2019. Founded in 2023, Newton Research has raised around $13 million to date, according to PitchBook. Newton Research declined to comment. Milicevic also said Akkio, which creates AI agents to help media agencies better understand their data, might be a good fit for Publicis. Founded in 2019, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company has raised around $18 million in funding. Jon Reilly, Akkio's cofounder and COO, said the company is building an operating system that automates "grunt work" so agencies can win pitches, safeguard margins, and stay focused on strategy. "Agencies urgently need a next-generation AI operating layer to modernize their fragmented stacks," Reilly said. Speaking generally about the AI space and without naming specific startups, Eric Franci of the VC firm Aperiam said companies that create agentic tools for marketing workflow would be the category to watch for M&A. He imagines a scenario where AI agents could drive processes like ad optimization, campaign planning, and measurement. The result would be "faster turnarounds, better performance," and teams that focus on "higher value, client-success oriented tasks," he said. AI optimization and modelling from the likes of Cassandra or Prescient AI could provide value Ad optimization used to involve humans watching ad campaigns like hawks, and adjusting spend, targeting, and creative messaging depending on how the ads were performing. AI could automate a lot of these "hands-on-keyboards" tasks. Weide said Prescient AI, an ad optimization platform that predicts the return on ad spend for e-commerce ads, could be an acquisition target for the likes of Publicis. Miami-based Prescient has raised $20.9 million in funding to date. "It's exciting to be mentioned in such a critical area of growth," Prescient AI CEO Mike True said. "With some of the brightest minds in the field, we're now focused on advancing the technology we believe will define the future of compound, intelligent measurement," he added. Italy-based Cassandra could also be a contender for a smaller bolt-on acquisition, Azerion's Buckman said. It specializes in a marketing technique called MMM — marketing mix modeling — to help advertisers assess how much and where they should be allocating their advertising budgets. The company has raised 2.3 million euros, around $2.7 million, in funding. Cristian Nozzi, Cassandra's cofounder and CTO, said the company is close to achieving $2 million in annual recurring revenue, three times the amount it registered last year. He added that the company aims to deliver "incrementality measurements at scale and with little to no effort to every organization in the world, no matter the size or budget." In marketing, incrementality refers to measuring the impact an ad campaign has had in driving additional sales.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Euro zone economy holds up even as ECB speakers look to temper market view of no more cuts
By Balazs Koranyi and Francesco Canepa FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The euro zone economy has remained resilient to the pervasive uncertainty caused by a global trade war, a slew of data showed on Friday, even as European Central Bank policymakers appeared to temper market bets on no more rate cuts. The ECB kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday and its modestly upbeat assessment of the euro zone economy raised expectations investors that a year-long easing cycle, which halved the bank's key rate to 2% from 4%, may be coming to a close. Supporting some of this optimism, lending data showed the fastest pace of expansion in two years, while a key ECB survey predicted quicker economic growth along with inflation right on target. A separate Ifo survey on Germany meanwhile showed the seventh consecutive rise, indicating that the bloc's biggest economy is still motoring along despite trade tensions holding back exports and corporate investment. The figures also back comments from ECB President Christine Lagarde that the bloc may have performed a "little better" than expected last quarter. The fresh data, combined with Lagarde's comments, led investors to keep reducing their bets on further rate hikes. Markets now see just a 50% chance of another move this year, a major retreat from earlier this week when another cut was fully priced in. Still, policymakers appeared to take a more cautious view than financial investors. "Risks to growth were still tilted to the downside, with uncertainty remaining very high," French central bank chief François Villeroy de Galhau said. "More than ever, in a volatile environment, agile pragmatism in light of data and forecasts is of the essence." One key worry is that tepid growth, a strong euro and the hit from tariffs will all curb price pressures, raising the risk that inflation, now at the ECB's 2% target, will fall too low, requiring stimulus from the central bank. "U.S. tariffs, the extent of which is still uncertain, are not expected to cause inflation to rise, while the appreciation of the euro is having a significant disinflationary effect," Villeroy said. Finnish central bank chief Olli Rehn also appeared to caution against staying on the sidelines for too long. "Taking more time for decision-making is now particularly useful – the option value of waiting is exceptionally high," Rehn said in a blog post. "However, we should not wait in vain for general uncertainty to diminish much, at least not under the current U.S. administration." Nevertheless, several major banks revised their ECB forecasts. Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Nomura and Commerzbank have all scrapped their predictions for more policy easing, expecting no more rate cuts this year, while JPMorgan pushed back its call for one final rate cut to October from September. However, several others, including Bank of America, Barclays and UniCredit, continued to predict a move in September, even if some of them acknowledged that the chances of a move have diminished somewhat.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Remembering Lionel Terray
Today, July 25, would be the 104th birthday of Lionel Terray. The celebrated French alpinist climbed routes from the Alps to the Himalaya to the Andes, and also wrote one of the all-time great mountaineering books, Conquistadors of the Useless. Early years Lionel Terray was born on July 25, 1921. Growing up in Grenoble near the French Alps, Terray discovered mountaineering and skiing as a child. A conversation with his mother, who dismissed climbing as a stupid sport involving scaling rocks with your hands and feet, sparked his curiosity. By age 12, Terray was climbing peaks like the Aiguille du Belvedere and the Aiguille d'Argentiere with his cousin. By 13, the talented youngster was leading climbs. But Terray's love for the mountains caused problems; he got kicked out of one boarding school and ran away from another to pursue ski racing. With little family support, he got by on his own. Skiing was Terray's first love, and as a teen, he won prizes in competitions, which gave him some money. In 1941, during World War II, Terray joined Jeunesse et Montagne, a military program that kept him in the mountains. There, he met lifelong friends and climbing partners Gaston Rebuffat and Louis Lachenal. In 1942, Terray carried out the first ascent of the west side of Aiguille Purtscheller. He also climbed the difficult Col du Caiman. From 1943 to 1944, Terray served in a high-mountain military unit. In 1944, he joined the French resistance, using his mountain skills against the Nazis. Terray knocked off other notable first ascents, such as the east-northeast spur of the Pain de Sucre and the north face of Aiguille des Pelerins with Maurice Herzog in 1944. A rising star After the war, Terray became a mountaineering instructor and settled in Chamonix as a freelance guide. With Lachenal, he did some of the Alps' most difficult routes, including the Droites' north spur in only eight hours in 1946, the Walker Spur of the Grandes Jorasses in 1946, the northeast face of Piz Badile, and the north face of the Eiger in 1947 (the second-ever ascent). Terray's speed and skill earned him a reputation as a climbing prodigy. A rescue attempt on Mont Blanc In late December 1956, Lionel Terray took part in a rescue attempt on Mont Blanc's Grand Plateau. At about 4,000m, young climbers Jean Vincendon and Francois Henry were stranded after a failed attempt on the Gouter Route, a popular 1,800m climb to Mont Blanc's summit. On December 22, a blizzard caught Vincendon and Henry near the Vallot Hut at 4,362m. Freezing and frostbitten, they couldn't descend. Terray, now a Chamonix guide, defied the Compagnie des Guides' decision to postpone a rescue because of the extreme risks of strong winds and freezing temperatures. Terray's team battled brutal weather for two days but couldn't reach the climbers. A military helicopter, attempting a parallel rescue, crashed near the Vallot Hut, stranding its crew. Terray's group retreated, exhausted, as conditions worsened. French Army instructors finally reached Vincendon and Henry in early January, but found them near death from exposure and frostbite. Evacuation was impossible, and both climbers died. Terray's rescue effort led to his expulsion from the guides' organization, sparking controversy in Chamonix. Eiger rescue In the summer of 1957, Terray took part in a complicated rescue on the Eiger's North Face in the Swiss Alps. Two Italian climbers, Claudio Corti and Stefano Longhi, were stranded after an avalanche hit their team during an attempt on the notorious Nordwand. The route, known for its steep ice, rockfall, and brutal weather, had already killed their partners, and Corti was injured. Terray, then 35, joined a multinational rescue team at Kleine Scheidegg. The climbers were stuck near the Difficult Crack, at around 3,300m. Terray, with German climbers Wolfgang Stefan and Hans Ratay, ascended via ropes and pitons. They battled harsh winds and -20°C temperatures. After two days, they reached Corti, who was hypothermic but alive, clinging to a ledge. Longhi, lower down, was too weak to move. Terray secured Corti with ropes, and the team lowered him 600m to safety. Longhi, barely conscious, died during the descent when his rope jammed. The effort, involving 50 people, was one of mountaineering's greatest rescues. Other historic climbs Terray's ambition took him beyond the Alps. In 1950, he joined Maurice Herzog's expedition to 8,091m Annapurna I in the Himalaya, the first confirmed ascent of an 8,000m peak. Terray and Rebuffat's efforts, alongside one of the Sherpas, were crucial to helping the frostbitten Herzog and Lachenal descend safely. The climb brought global fame for the French team. In 1952, Terray and Guido Magnone made the first ascent of Cerro Fitz Roy in Patagonia. That year, Terray also climbed 6,369m Huantsan in Peru with Cees Egeler and Tom De Booy. In 1954, Terray summited 7,804m Chomo Lonzo with Jean Couzy, paving the way for their legendary 1955 first ascent of 8,485m Makalu. In 1962, Terray led the first ascent of 7,710m Jannu in Nepal, and in the summer of 1964, he led the first ascent of 3,731m Mount Huntington in Alaska. In Peru, Terray made first ascents of peaks like 6,108m Chacraraju, considered the hardest peak in the Andes at the time, along with 5,350m Willka Wiqi, 5,428m Soray, and 5,830m Tawllirahu. Conquistadors of the Useless In 1961, Terray published Les Conquerants de l'inutile (Conquistadors of the Useless), a memoir that blends vivid accounts of his climbs with reflections on the purpose of mountaineering. The title captures his view that climbing, though seen as pointless by some, was a noble pursuit. The book, translated into several languages, remains a classic. A tragic end On September 19, 1965, Terray and his friend Marc Martinetti died in a climbing accident in the Vercors massif near Grenoble. Terray was just 44. The pair was descending the Gerbier, a limestone cliff in the Vercors range, after completing a route. They were roped together when their rope -- likely weakened or damaged -- snapped. They fell more than 200m to the base of the cliff. Both climbers died on impact. Chamonix mourned deeply, and his funeral drew figures like Herzog, Rebuffat, and Leo LeBon. "He was to many a great and dear friend, and all those who paid him tribute before he was laid to rest in the Chamonix Cemetery, among them hardened mountain climbers, wept like small children. To the French climbing world, especially the younger generation, his absence represents an irreplaceable loss, as he was the hero of their dreams, and could hold an audience breathless as no one ever has been able to," Lebon wrote in the American Alpine Journal. Terray's legacy lives on through his climbs, rescues, and writings. His son, Nicolas, is a mountain guide. Known for his red beanie and sunglasses, Terray appeared in films like Etoile du Midi, La Grande Descente, and Stars Above Mont Blanc. You can watch Etoile du Midi below, with the option of automatic subtitles: Solve the daily Crossword
