Google Sells Off Performics To Publicis Groupe

SmartMoney reports that Google has sold off the search marketing division of DoubleClick, Performics, to a French company named Publicis Groupe.

When Google purchased DoubleClick, they acquired Performics with it. Google promised to sell off the Performics division, due to the conflict of interest in owning such a company. Today, they sold it to Publicis Groupe.

It is actually interesting that they sold it to Publicis Groupe. Google has partnered with Publicis in the past to “expand in the fast-growing digital advertising market . . . [and that] Google would exchange its technological know-how for Publicis’s analytical and media planning expertise.”

The transaction is still subject to some customary closing conditions, but it is expected that the deal will close something in the third quarter of 2008.