Publicis, the French advertising group that became the sixth largest in the world when it merged with Saatchi & Saatchi in June 2000, is set to move up two notches with the $3bn (€3.4bn) acquisition of Bcom3, the US communications group.

The company, which was advised by Lazard on both deals, is to buy Bcom3 for $1.5m in new equity, $750m in convertible bonds and $750m in bonds with warrants.