Manhattan PR Firm Kekst & Co. To Be Acquired by Publicis

Financial PR powerhouse Kekst & Co. has agreed to be acquired by marcom behemoth Publicis Group SA in an all cash deal.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The 70-person firm, run from a small office off Madison Avenue, agreed to sell itself to a giant of publicity and advertising, France’s 43,000-employee Publicis Groupe SA. Terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed, which left the firm’s rivals speculating the price was somewhere in the range of $100 million to $200 million.

Financial PR is indeed a sweet spot in the industry, as it “can produce margins as high as 40%, with some of the most highly compensated players earning as much as $900 per hour of work.”

Said Publicis chairman and CEO Maurice Levy, who has known Kekst & Co. founder Gershon Kekst for some time, “It’s like having a marriage with a cousin.”

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