Shares of Boston-based Sapient Corp. soared 42 percent Monday after its board agreed to a $3.7 billion all-cash takeover bid from French advertising giant Publicis Groupe.
Plans call for Sapient to function as a key division of Publicis and help it get to realizing more than 50 percent of its revenue from digital activities by the end of next year, three years ahead of its schedule.
Sapient has 13,000 employees in 37 cities around the world and realized revenue of $1.36 billion in the year that ended June 30.
Publicis said it has signed a deal for the top 30 managers of Sapient to remain with the company so there won’t be a cash-out and brain drain after the deal closes, which is projected to happen before March 2015.
The Publicis offer is worth $25 a share in cash, a 44 percent premium from its closing price Friday. Sapient shares soared 42 percent Monday, up $7.28 to $24.60 per share. The 40-cent gap from the Publicis offer is typical given that there’s a time lapse before shareholders get their cash and it’s never completely certain a deal will close until it does.
Sapient is an example of a survivor of the dot-com mania of the 1990s, having gone public in 1996 and seen its stock soar to $550 a share before collapsing to 75 cents a share. But the company has plugged away, closing more than a dozen acquisitions to become a major global player in digital advertising and marketing and consulting to businesses, governments, and other organizations about their online strategies.
