After two and a half months of negotiations, the Publicis group announces today the acquisition of 49% of the interest of the Brazilian advertising agency Talent. The operation reached a value of nearly R$ 200 million (US$ 117.6 million). Questioned, Talent made no announcements on the issue yesterday. Ranking 16th among the largest agencies in Brazil in 2009, last year the company generated little more than R$ 310 million (US$ 182.4 million) in media and it was one of the few large companies with 100% national capital in the sector.The company will continue under the control of the entrepreneur Julio Ribeiro, founder of the company with 85% of the shares, according to the details of the operation anticipated by Valor on August 24. Nevertheless, there is the possibility of having Ribeiro removed from the everyday operation within the coming years and start handling the strategic issues in the group. The Vice Presidents of Talent, José Eustachio and Antonio Lino, current partners of Júlio Ribeiro, continue holding the same offices. In Brazil, the negotiations were arranged by Estáter Gestão e Finanças, of the partner Pércio de Souza.Regarding the possibility of Leo Burnett becoming a party to the agreement, and joining the operations of Talent, the case was debated by the Publicis group in France, but the possibility was ruled out. That because it might generate a conflict between potential future accounts between the companies. Besides Publicis, the WPP Group was interested in Talent, but it gave up of the deal weeks ago for considering the value offered by Publicis too high.
