The Financial Times reports today that Microsoft will sell Razorfish, the digital agency they picked up just over 2 years ago following the purchase of aQuantive.
Though details are thin, it has been reported that Publicis is in the best position to buy the Seattle based shop. Both the Financial Times and The Guardian cite unnamed sources, and there’s little evidence that Publicis is ready to make such a purchase.
In August of last year we started hearing (here and here) that Microsoft was planning to sell. At that time, rumors of WPP making a bid were floating around, but since then there’s been little to mention.
WPP provided no comment when asked if Razorfish is an agency that might be worth picking up.
One question worth looking into: would Microsoft disable Razorfish’s commitment to the Atlas platform if they sell to Publicis? Furthermore, as one spy notes, “how does publicis buy razorfish, when publicis is committed to the google platform and razorfish is committed to microsofts atlas platform?”
Update: Sources within Razorfish say CEO Bob Lord issued a notice to employees indicating the agency is not getting sold.
Update 2: a Razorfish representative responded with “no comment.” Interestingly, we didn’t ask a question.
More: “Avenue A|Razorfish Poised for Sale to WPP, Insider Says”