Publicis Groupe, the French advertising and public relations company, has acquired the Mumbai-based Convonix for an undisclosed amount. While the financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, the company said that following the acquisition, Convonix will become a part of Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group and will operate as SMG Convonix to offer Internet marketing services to its clients. It also added that Convonix founders Vishal Sampat, Sarfaraz Khimani and Pallav Jain will continue to manage the agency. Founded in 2003, Convonix is an Internet marketing firm which offers services like search engine optimization, paid search marketing, social media marketing and online reputation management. It had also recently released a brand management service called IrisTrack, which allows brands to track online conversations across websites, blogs, social media channels and forums in real time and respond to these conversations. It also offers sentiment analysis, business intelligence and resolution tracking among others. Among its clientele include Taj Hotels, Reliance Industries, Future Group, Kotak Mahindra Group, Club Mahindra, Kodak, Aditya Birla Group, Rediff.com, and Justdial among others. Previous Acquisitions: This is the fourth acquisition by Publicis Groupe in India in the last two years. In April 2012, it had acquired a Mumbai-based digital marketing and web development agency Indigo consulting and had mentioned its plans to double its size in India by 2015. In August 2012, it had acquired a performance marketing firm Resultrix and in December 2012, it had acquired two digital media agencies in the country - iStrat, an integrated digital agencies and MarketGate, a strategic business and marketing consulting firm. Publicis had also acquired a majority stake in the PR firm 20:20 Media and the social media…
