Publicis buys up marketing shop Gravitas in Japan

Gravitas' equity partners Sloan Carr and Jeff Loucks started discussing the take-over in January. The pair have agreed to a five-year earn out.

Loucks will head Publicis-Dialog, while Carr will replace Louis-Sebastien Ohl, who is moving to Publicis Paris office, as chief executive of Publicis.

Loucks said gaining management control was important and the two also felt Publicis and Gravitas had similar goals and philosophies. "Since we started, we've been focusing on integrated marketing communications." Guillaume Levy-Lambert, Publicis Asia-Pacific regional chairman, said: "With Gravitas, revenues will increase by more than 50 per cent and we will step up to full-service capacity straight away."

Publicis clients include L'Oreal, Hewlett-Packard and Renault; while Gravitas has Adidas, the Australian Tourist Commission and Canon. Loucks said there are no conflicting accounts although Gravitas will have to monitor the situation with its tech clients to ensure there was no conflict with Publicis' client Hewlett-Packard.