ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space. In this week’s edition: Publicis wants a piece of Cheil; Google's DoubleClick starts Programmatic Guaranteed; Flashtalking acquires Encore; MediaMath Launches Helix; and Series A funding for startup Vyking.  

Publicis wants stake in Cheil

With a marketing budget that runs into the billions, Samsung is a big fish. No wonder that French advertising and PR company Publicis is eyeing a bid for a controlling stake in Cheil Worldwide, the agency that is responsible for the majority of Samsung’s advertising.

According to AdAge, Publicis is considering a bid for 30% of Cheil. Valued at USD$1.9bn, that would put a price tag of USD$600m, on a 30% stake.

Not exactly a bargain, but worth it if it buys a majority stake that would even surpass Samsung’s own 25% stake in Cheil – and ensures that future Samsung advertising will continue to be handled by Cheil.

The move could also bolster and bring in revenue for Publicis, whose growth has recently plateaued, and whose owner Maurice Levy has come under attack for Publicis’ lagging performance.

The company has not commented on the reports that negotiations are at an early stage.

DoubleClick launches guaranteed offering

After six months of testing with media buyers and publishers, DoubleClick is now ready for the global public beta launch of their Programmatic Guaranteed offering for all advertisers who use DoubleClick Bid Manager and publishers using DoubleClick for Publishers Premium.

With Programmatic Guaranteed, DoubleClick promises its clients a link between traditional advertising and real-time bidding. Using the infrastructure of RTB, clients directly buy and sell inventory with a fixed price.

"The true value of programmatic direct will be achieved when the power of real-time, data-driven decisions is combined with access to brand-safe, reserved publisher inventory, currently available through direct sales”, said Kurt Spoerer, DoubleClick, senior product manager in a blogpost announcing the launch.

Flashtalking buys attribution service Encore

Flashtalking adds to its stack: With the acquisition of Encore, Flashtalking integrates attribution analytics to its offering.

"This allows Flashtalking to be completely on the side of the advertiser, free to act as an independent, dispassionate auditor and optimiser of media performance and inventory quality”, says Flashtalking CEO John Nardone.

The acquisition is a move to consolidate Flashtalking’s independence in the media buying process, providing advertisers with data and measurement across audience engagements, formats, channels and devices.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A new business unit for MediaMath – or is it?

MediaMath launches Helix, a new business unit focussing on customer data. Anonymised audience data from hundreds of members, including one-third of the largest US retailers, will be made available to Helix’s clients. Customer profiles are further enhanced with data from MediaMath and partners.

"Despite the resounding success of programmatic as a key tenet of marketers' paid media strategies, using data is still mostly a manual and difficult process – and sometimes it just doesn't work", said Joe Zawadzki, CEO of MediaMath.

Seamlessly integrated with MediaMath's buying platform, Helix is based on the Adroit Shopper Co-op which MediaMath acquired from Akamai in 2013.

After a six-month closed beta phase, Helix is now launching in the US, but will be made available across the globe in stages.

Adtech startup Vyking announces a Series A fundraising round of €1m (£0.76m). Based in London and Berlin, Vyking has secured capital and is getting ready to invest its new funding into European expansion, particularly in co-founder and COO Thibault Marion de Procé’s native France.

Vyking is now adding a new publisher-focused ad serving and management platform for video advertising to its existing private marketplace.

Founded in February 2015, this is Vyking's first fundraising from private investors.

"We will continue to invest heavily in research and development. With the first publishers now onboard, we will also be recruiting more digital advertising experts”, says Klimpke. “We’re also exploring future formats and delivery channels in spaces currently under the radar!”