• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 25, 2007

First Google announces an agreement to acquire industry leader DoubleClick. Then WPP acquires 24/7 Real Media. Then Microsoft strikes a deal to acquire aQuantive and its Atlas DMT unit. Now Aegis Group has purchased Bluestreak.com, marking the latest deal in what has become a frenzied market for online ad-serving businesses.

While Aegis' paltry $12.5 million acquisition price is a pittance of the $3.1 billion Google has offered for DoubleClick, the $6 billion Microsoft plans to pay for all of aQuantive, or the $649 million WPP paid for 24/7 Real Media, the deal nonetheless signals a virtual land grab for the ad-server marketplace.

"This is something of a landmark deal for Aegis," stated Aegis CEO Robert Lerwill, acknowledging that, "Ad-serving is in the spotlight right now, and we believe the combination of media and ad-serving is the most interesting of all."

Lerwill added that Aegis' agencies and clients would continue to work with other industry ad-servers, but said, "owning our own technology in-house will give us a step change in product development across both search and display."

Aegis, which is the parent of Carat and other media networks, said it would integrate Bluestreak into its digital agency network Isobar, now the world's biggest provider of interactive advertising and media buying services.

Founded in 1999, and active in the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany, Bluestreak already had deep ties with Aegis, and is the only ad server currently integrated into Isobar's proprietary paid search bidding agent, iSEBA.

The relationship began in 1999, when Aegis and Bluestreak collaborated on the first U.S. rich media ad effort for client Pfizer's Zithromax brand.