After an uncomfortable acquisition and ownership of Performics, Google has decided to call it quits and offload the affiliate marketing division. The Publicis Groupe in France is picking up Performics in order to simplify its own offerings.

Historically, Google has been at odds with search engine marketing and optimization companies, so some have been screaming conflict of interest since the DoubleClick acquisition. Critics have been concerned about possible insider information going from Google to Performics that would help in the rankings.

Performics is now a 10 year old company with around 200 search engine marketing specialists onboard. In order to abate these calls, this is a deal that needed to be done.

It’s a pity though that this deal is going through as I am just getting used to receiving the Google Performics emails about new advertisers coming onboard.

Filed under: Google