Publicis Sapient is a digital consulting company belonging to

Publicis Groupe Publicis Groupe S.A. is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. As of 2024, the company is the largest advertising company in the world by revenue. Based in Paris, it is one of the 'Big Four' advertising commpanies, al ...

, with 20,000 people and over 50 offices worldwide. It was originally established as Sapient in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

in 1990. In 2015, Sapient became an independent subsidiary of French multinational advertising firm

Publicis Publicis Groupe S.A. is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. As of 2024, the company is the largest advertising company in the world by revenue. Based in Paris, it is one of the 'Big Four' advertising commpanies, al ...

, following a deal worth US$3.7 billion. It remains headquartered in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts, and , the leadership is retained. In 2016, the company merged two of its divisions, SapientNitro and

Razorfish Razorfish or razor fish may refer to: Species Fish A common name used for three unrelated groups of fishes: * The genera ''Aeoliscus'', and ''Centriscus'', also known as shrimpfishes, in the family Centriscidae * The genus ''Xyrichtys'' of the f ...

, to form SapientRazorfish, which was led by Alan Wexler. A few years later, in 2019, SapientRazorfish and Sapient Consulting were consolidated into one brand, Publicis Sapient, under the leadership of CEO Nigel Vaz.

History

The company Sapient was founded on November 6, 1990, by Jerry Greenberg and J. Stuart Moore in

. The company was established as a digital consulting firm and adopted a fixed-term, fixed-price model for

IT consulting In management, information technology consulting (also called IT consulting, computer consultancy, business and technology services, computing consultancy, technology consulting, and IT advisory) is a field of activity which focuses on advising or ...

projects instead of charging on a time and materials basis. Sapient embraced

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

-based technology early on and by 1999, internet-based work accounted for over 70% of its revenue. From 1992 to 2000, the company saw rapid growth, with revenue increasing from $950,000 to $503 million. Following the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

burst in the early 2000s, Sapient looked to expand internationally to drive growth. The company implemented a strategy called "Global Distributed Delivery" which leveraged the rapidly growing tech market in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

to grow its software development capabilities. Throughout its history, Sapient has made several acquisitions, starting with Planning Group International in 2006. Other notable acquisitions include DCG Group in 2008, which enhanced its

capital market A capital market is a financial market in which long-term debt (over a year) or equity-backed securities are bought and sold, in contrast to a money market where short-term debt is bought and sold. Capital markets channel the wealth of savers ...

s offerings, and The Nitro Group in 2009, which added 300 employees.

History of acquisitions

Corporate affairs

In 1996, Sapient made its initial public offering with a share price of $21. In the next four years, the technology sector saw an increase in share prices, leading to an increase in Sapient's shares to a split-adjusted price of $550. However, during the dot-com bust of 2000, Sapient's shares dropped to a low of $0.75 per share. The shares reached a peak of $17.95 in 2014.

References

{{Reflist, 3 Publicis Groupe American companies established in 1990 Software companies established in 1990 Companies based in Boston Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Software companies based in Massachusetts 2015 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies Software companies of the United States