• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, June 18, 2013

Google-owned Motorola has appointed Publicis Groupe’s Digitas to handle global media duties, according to sources. Those duties, which were shifted without a formal review had previously been handled by WPP’s Mindshare. The latter agency had handled the account for the past eight years.

The company spent an estimated $550 million on ads worldwide in 2011, according sources. Last year’s figures weren’t immediately available, but sources indicated that the company had cut back somewhat on spending outside of the U.S.

The shift comes months after the arrival of Brian Wallace as vice president, global brand and product marketing at Motorola, a post he was named to last December. Motorola hired Wallace away from rival smart phone marketer Samsung where he was vice president, strategic marketing.

 At Samsung Wallace hired Digitas sister agency Razorfish as the company’s digital agency of record. Digitas also handled some assignments during Wallace’s tenure and another Publicis agency Starcom has handled media duties for Samsung since 2007.

It was not immediately clear why Wallace shifted the Motorola business without a review. He couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Mindshare declined to comment on the shift. A Digitas rep said she did not have any information to share but that she would look into the matter to see what the agency was willing to say (if anything) at this point.