Microsoft has appointed Morgan Stanley to find a potential buyer for Razorfish, its digital agency, reported the Financial Times. The company purchased Razorfish, formerly called Avenue A Razorfish, as part of its $6 billion takeover of aQuantive in 2007.
According to FT, an unidentified analyst valued Razorfish at $600m-$700m, based on sales of about $400m last year and profit margins for similar businesses of 12-13%.
Razorfish is a Seattle-based interactive agency with 2,000 employees.
Publicis, a French marketing firm reportedly interested in more acquisitions in online advertising, is expected to bid for the company.
Publicis and Microsoft entered into an agreement recently, under which both the companies will work together on three core objectives – to build new content, improve marketing performance and help better target audiences.
It has been reported that other agency groups such as Omnicom and WPP are also interested in Razorfish.
