Digitas Pixelpark

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Digitas Pixelpark is an advertising and digital agency , active in four locations in Germany.

The agency, which previously operated as Publicis Pixelpark with six locations in Germany, emerged in 2015 from the merger of Publicis Germany with Pixelpark AG.

While Publicis Germany had been inactive since 1959 - Pixelpark AG was a group of companies for communication and e-business solutions founded in Berlin in 1991 .

Via MMS Germany Holdings , Pixelpark became part of the Publicis Groupe , a multinational advertising service provider and media group based in Paris , France . After the takeover of Pixelpark AG, the stock corporation was taken off the stock exchange and renamed Pixelpark GmbH. The former locations of Publicis Germany operate as Publicis Pixelpark GmbH.

The agency has been acting as Digitas Pixelpark since November 2019.

Company history Pixelpark AG

1991-2002

Pixelpark was founded in 1991 by Paulus Neef and Eku Wand . In the first few years, Pixelpark developed CD-ROMs and kiosk systems for companies. In addition to multimedia applications, services relating to the Internet and e-commerce were later added . In 1996, Bertelsmann took a majority stake in the company.

In 1999 the company went public and, with the help of the capital raised, expanded across Europe, primarily through acquisitions of smaller companies. In the wake of a share euphoria, especially for stocks on the Neuer Markt , the price of the Pixelpark share rose from an issue price in October 1999 of 15 euros to an initial listing of 16.30 euros to over 30 euros within a month. Shortly before the price crash in Internet titles, the paper reached its all-time high of 336 euros in March. With the collapse of the New Market in 2001/2002, Pixelpark was also forced to cut jobs massively. During the restructuring, the company also concentrated on the core business of internet services and on the German-speaking area.

In December 2002, the chairman of the supervisory board Jürgen Richter temporarily took over the office of CEO from founder Paulus Neef after the supervisory board discovered irregularities in the acquisition of the subsidiary ZLU in 2000. At the same time, the previous majority shareholder, Bertelsmann AG, drastically reduced its stake in Pixelpark AG from 60 to 20 percent.

2003-2008

In April 2003 Michael Riese was appointed to the board. Under his leadership, the company implemented a restructuring strategy that was completed in 2004 with the debt relief. In the summer of 2006, the board members of Pixelpark AG and the listed competitor Elephant Seven AG announced a merger of the two companies. In the course of an offer to the shareholders of Elephant Seven AG to swap their shares for shares in Pixelpark AG, Pixelpark took over the company in spring 2007. On October 26, 2007, Elephant Seven AG was merged with Pixelpark AG; Elephant Seven was retained as a brand.

The turnover in 2006 was around 34 million euros. For the first time since the IPO, a profit could be achieved: The result after taxes amounted to 789,000 euros. After this recovery, the company was again in the red in fiscal 2007. The bottom line was a group loss of 2.75 million euros.

According to the New Media Service Ranking , Pixelpark was the second largest company in the Internet and multimedia service provider sector in Germany in 2007 and the largest independent company in this sector.

On September 4, 2008, Michael Riese resigned as CEO due to differing views on the future strategic direction of the company with the Supervisory Board. Board member Horst Wagner was appointed as the new CEO and CFO on the same day.

Since 2008

In September and October 2008, the company issued two convertible bonds to finance the strategic realignment. The first, worth 3.3 million euros, was fully subscribed by an institutional investor. The second, worth 3.7 million euros, was offered to shareholders for purchase. At the same time, the number of employees in the holding company should be reduced by up to 20.

In January 2009, Pixelpark announced the loss of half of its share capital due to depreciation. The total turnover fell from 47.4 million euros in 2007 to 43.6 million euros in 2008. While sales in the communication area increased from 33.9 to 36.7 million euros, it fell in the system technology segment from 13.5 to 6.9 million and therefore called the shareholders to an extraordinary general meeting on March 26, 2009.

On December 21, 2010, the company announced that it had reached an agreement with creditors and investors to receive debt relief of 19.3 million euros (83%). The prerequisite for this is the approval of the general meeting, which is to be convened promptly. In addition, there will be further changes within the corporate structure at the turn of the year.

On January 26, 2012, the company announced that the Publicis Groupe would make a public purchase offer to the shareholders of Pixelpark AG for all outstanding shares in the company.

On 9 November 2012, the General Meeting approved a domination agreement of Pixelpark with Publicis Groupe belonging to the MMS Germany Holdings to.

Since 2014

The agency now appears as Publicis Pixelpark.

Since 2019

On March 28, 2019, it was announced that the Bielefeld location would be closed on June 30, 2019. About 50 employees were given notice of termination and offered to work at another location.

On April 9, 2019, the agency announced that Horst Wagner (Chairman Publicis Communications) would leave the group. Frank-Peter Lortz then took over the management of Publicis Communications in addition to the management of Publicis Media.

Shortly afterwards, Dirk Kedrowitsch (CEO Publicis Pixelpark) left the company after 28 years. This became public on June 3, 2019. Frank-Peter Lortz will also take over the provisional management of Publicis Pixelpark.

The Erlangen location was also closed at the end of 2019. Around 70 employees were affected. Most accepted an offer to relocate. The Erlangen branch was occupied in 2003 with 170 employees.

In November 2019, as part of the renovation of Publicis throughout Germany, a separation was made: the previous creative teams at the Frankfurt and Munich locations will in future operate under the umbrella of the Saatchi & Saatchi creative agency. The digital teams from Publicis Pixelpark in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg were merged with an existing Digitas team in Düsseldorf and are now appearing on the market as Digitas Pixelpark. The focus of the digital agency is customer experience . Digitas Pixelpark is managed by Ralf Niemann (CEO), Jens-Christian Jensen (CSO), Timm Weber (CCO) and Christian Jungbluth (CFO).

Locations

Digitas Pixelpark is represented at four locations in Germany: in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Cologne. The head office is in Hamburg.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horizon of October 17, 2014
  2. ↑ Message needs technology. Technology needs a message. Retrieved August 21, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Intention to conclude a domination agreement. Pixelpark, accessed May 30, 2013 .
  4. ↑ a b Result of the Extraordinary General Meeting. Pixelpark, accessed May 30, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Publicis Germany bundles agency strengths. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Heise.de: Pixelpark: From the three-man company on the stock market darling to the restructuring case, message from December 20, 2002.
  7. ↑ http://www.finanzen100.de/aktien/pixelpark-wkn-126225_H649557004_9172238/chart.html#
  8. ↑ Best result in the company's history - Pixelpark AG publishes annual financial statements for 2006. Pixelpark AG, May 15, 2007, accessed on July 21, 2008 .
  9. ↑ New Media Service Ranking: The largest agencies, multimedia, online and e-commerce service providers ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 25, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.newmediaranking.de
  10. ↑ Internet agency ranking 2010 , accessed on January 10, 2010.
  11. ↑ Ad hoc announcement of September 17, 2008
  12. ↑ Ad hoc announcement of October 7, 2008
  13. ↑ S. Ad hoc announcement v. October 20, 2008
  14. ↑ Pixelpark AG announces loss of half of its share capital  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.teleboerse.de  
  15. ↑ Pixelpark AG: Pixelpark sets the course for a sustainable future ( memento of the original from January 7th, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 31, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pixelpark.de
  16. ↑ Publicis plans to acquire Pixelpark AG through a public purchase offer for EUR 1.70 per share. Retrieved January 26, 2012
  17. ↑ Horizon of October 17, 2014
  18. ↑ Publicis Pixelpark closes Bielefeld location on June 30, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Publicis Communications Germany: Frank-Peter Lortz becomes CEO / Chairman Horst Wagner changes to Thjnk. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Publicis Pixelpark: CEO Dirk Kedrowitsch leaves / Group boss Lortz takes over provisionally. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Mehrdad Amirkhizi: Publicis Communications: Saatchi doesn't work for Grohe after all / the Erlangen office is closing. In: horizon. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Erlanger Nachrichten of February 28, 2020, p. 29
  23. ↑ Publicis Germany bundles agency strengths. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Digitas Pixelpark | Management. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Digitas Pixelpark | Locations. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .