• by Larissa Faw , July 8, 2014

Publicis Groupe continues its recent acquisition spree with the purchase of Cybermedia, parent company of Proximedia, the web services provider for small and medium enterprises (SME) in Belgium and the Netherlands. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Proximedia will be aligned with Publicis Webformance within Publicis Groupe to form a division dedicated to small and mid-sized clients that will operate in major European markets including Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain.

Maxime Baffert, CEO of Publicis Webformance, will lead this new division, with nearly 45,000 clients and around 500 staffers.

The holding company believes the deal enables it to speed up its growth in the European digital communications market. The European Union counts over 25 million small and mid-sized businesses today, with the local digital communications industry projecting growth of between 15 and 20% per year over the next five years.

Much like the big advertisers, these businesses are committed to the digitalization of their marketing and communications. The opportunity for digital marketing services appears significant as less than one third of European companies had a website in 2013.

"Integration in the Publicis Groupe constitutes the culmination of more than 15 years of growth in providing digital services for our clients," says Fabrice Wuyts, CEO of Proximedia. "We believe that the growth and innovation momentum that has been Proximedia's trademark since its inception will be continued and amplified as we move into this new phase of our business."

Founded in 1998 and based in Brussels, Proximedia employs more than 380 and has more than 25,000 clients. The agency creates websites for its clients, produces web content (videos) under the Bezoom brand and delivers organic and paid search solutions under the brand Beup.

More recently, the company launched a number of new products, notably in the area of web-to-store (Bizbook & Bizbook Channel), CRM (Bepoint) as well as online video. 

Publicis Webformance originally launched in the French market in 2011.