Microsoft finally sells Razorfish for $530 million

Publicis, a French advertising firm with clients as large as Coca-Cola, is the proud new owner of Razorfish.
We’ve been chronicling the plight of Razorfish for a few months now. To recap: Microsoft acquired Razorfish’s parent company in 2007 and has been looking to unload the interactive agency ever since. Razorfish, formally known as Avenue A, has offices all over the world including Center City Philadelphia.
According to the Times of London, Microsoft was in “an unholy rush” to get the deal done so it wouldn’t have to pay scheduled bonuses to Razorfish’s employees.
Details of the deal after the jump.
The software giant settled on Publicus’ $530 million deal which includes an agreement to buy “hundreds of millions” in Bing advertising. Microsoft will take a stake in Publicus as part of the deal.

• The purchase was roughly 1.5 times Razorfish’s 2008 earnings.
• $230 million was in equity and $300 million in cash.
• Publicus agrees to buy ads from Bing at a discount for five years.
• Razorfish’s management will remain unchanged
• Razorfish will retain its branding.

[h/t to Philly Tech News, paidConent, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and the Times of London]