France's Publicis to buy search unit from Google

PARIS (Reuters) - Publicis is to acquire a search marketing services provider from U.S. search engine group Google Inc as part of its push into digital advertising, the French advertising company said on Wednesday.

Publicis, which aims to generate 25 percent of its sales from the Internet by 2010, said it would acquire Chicago-based Performics Search Marketing from Google for an undisclosed amount.

The unit will boost Publicis's strategic entity unveiled in June called Vivaki, aimed at spurring growth at its digital advertising units such as Digitas and Zenith-Optimedia.

In a statement, Publicis quoted the research house Jupiter Media saying the global search market was worth an estimated $9.9 billion in 2008 and is projected to grow at 12 percent compound annual growth rate through 2012.

(Reporting by Astrid Wendlandt; Editing by David Holmes)