Seattle-based interactive ad agency Razorfish has been sold twice in three years, operating against a seemingly constant backdrop of industry speculation about its fate. But the uncertainty appears to be over, now that the dust has settled on ad giant Publicis Groupe's purchase of Razorfish from Microsoft for $530 million — the second-biggest deal of 2009 in Washington state mergers and acquisitions.

“We feel like we have found a home,” said Joe Mele, a Razorfish managing director of media and marketing. “The Publicis people have made it clear that we are part of the family.”

Seven months after the sale, Publicis has signaled that it sees Razorfish as a key part of the massive French advertising holding company’s push to increase its digital advertising business. And if Razorfish stays an independent brand centered in Seattle, that bodes well for the region’s position as a center for online advertising services.

Today, Razorfish has more than 2,000 employees, with more than 250 in the art deco Exchange Building in downtown Seattle.

Razorfish laid off an unspecified number of people a year ago, before the sale to Publicis. But lately, the company has been hiring. Since the first of the year, Razorfish has posted about 110 job openings for its 10 U.S. offices. About 20 of those postings are in Seattle; five are for freelancers and the rest are for full-time positions. Razorfish has tech openings and is looking for account managers in Seattle.

The company’s client list includes former owner Microsoft. Razorfish was part of the recent rollout of the Redmond software giant’s Bing search engine, including designing the Bing logo and working on the ad campaign.

Razorfish also recently worked with another client, Best Buy, to help the retailer promote its expansion into selling high-end musical instruments and equipment. Mele said it was a soft sell that included reaching music fans through the Pandora Radio personalized internet music site.

Publicis has a large Seattle office. But after paying more than a half-billion dollars for Razorfish, it doesn’t make sense for Publicis to dismantle Razorfish and fold it into other operations, Mele said, citing Razorfish’s history as a leader in digital media.

David Kenny, managing partner of VivaKi, Publicis Groupe’s media and digital unit, said in an email that Razorfish is an important strategic addition.

“Publicis Groupe has been able to deepen its bench of creative and technology leaders with the addition of Razorfish,” Kenny said. “The management team of Razorfish are extraordinarily innovative and resourceful, and have been quickly embraced by clients and colleagues alike.”

In a mid-February public filing, Publicis said it sees Razorfish as an important part of the Paris-based group’s plans to boost its digital ad business. In public statements, Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy said digital ads make up about 22.5 percent of Publicis’ sales — and his goal is to boost that to 60 percent.

The fate of Razorfish — once known as Avenue A Razorfish — was an industry topic even before 2007, when Microsoft announced it was acquiring the ad agency as part of a $6 billion deal to buy its parent, Seattle-based online advertising company aQuantive, which included other divisions that focused on digital marketing, online advertising software and online advertising buying.

With a stable of top-drawer clients such as Nike and Disney, Razorfish was already one of the world’s largest interactive ad firms.

But Razorfish’s employees remained part of an autonomous subsidiary of Microsoft, while those who worked for other aQuantive businesses were folded into a Microsoft division. Microsoft told Razorfish employees they would not get employer-paid health insurance and other Microsoft benefits.

So it was little surprise in August when Publicis Groupe bought Razorfish from Microsoft.

In the tech industry, Razorfish was viewed as a misfit inside Microsoft — and therefore a candidate for sale — even before the Redmond company completed its acquisition of aQuantive. The reason: As an online advertising agency, Razorfish is tasked with working on behalf of its clients as a neutral advocate to find the most effective online properties for their campaigns, no matter who owns those properties. As a unit of Microsoft, the agency faced the potential appearance of a conflict of interest, as it weighed Microsoft sites against Yahoo and Google and many others that competed against its parent company.

However, that didn’t figure largely into the decision to sell, said Dave O’Hara, who was the point person on the negotiations as the Microsoft executive in charge of corporate development for the company's Windows and online businesses. Microsoft had sought to give Razorfish the independence to act as a stand-alone entity, even as part of the company, and clients seem satisfied with that, he said.

Selling Razorfish “wasn’t a given,” O’Hara said.

“We were learning a lot throughout the process, and we learned a lot from Razorfish folks in terms of the advertising world, and all that goes on there,” he said. “From our perspective, it was a very strong asset, and a key part of the (aQuantive) acquisition. We didn’t feel like we had to sell it, but at some point it probably made sense that an agency would be part of a larger agency.”

Once the company made the decision to sell, it reached out to potential bidders and found that there was “considerable interest,” O’Hara said.

Publicis had “a deep appreciation for the Razorfish business, having competed against it and worked with it in the past,” O’Hara said. “A lot of times when you have a divestiture, there isn’t always that level of interest, but on this one, there was a high level of interest from multiple parties.”

As part of the deal, the companies inked a five-year strategic alliance under which Publicis agreed buy an undisclosed volume of display and search advertising space from Microsoft.