• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 25, 2011

Donovan Data Systems and MediaBank, the two dominant and fiercely competitive suppliers of advertising and media-buying processing systems to Madison Avenue, have agreed to merge into a new company called MediaOcean, which will be led by Donovan founder Michael Donovan MediaBank CEO Bill Wise, who will serve as executive chairman and CEO of the new company.

The merger, if approved by regulators, would dramatically consolidate the marketplace for ad agency data processing systems, leaving Comcast-owned Strata as the next biggest player.

Though Donovan and MediaBank spent much of the past several years badmouthing each other's products and services, the companies said MediaOcean would combine the best of both organizations, with a goal of developing an "OS," or operating system for the ad industry.

Dubbed the MediaOcean OS Project, the companies said the new system will "encompass common standards, open platforms and universal APIs, to enable any agency, media seller or third party to seamlessly integrate with each other as well as with the MediaOcean systems.

The companies also said that the "economies of scale" resulting from the merger would enable MediaOcean to invest in the building and supporting of new systems that would lower overall costs for their clients.