• by Joe Mandese , February 24, 2020

Ascential PLC, a B2B media holding company best known for operating the Cannes Festival of Creativity/Media Lions, has taken a minority stake in Hudson MX, a startup competing with media-buying systems providers like MediaOcean.

The companies said Ascential invested $10 million and that the companies would work together in an unspecified “strategic collaboration.”

Among Ascential’s strategic acquisitions in recent years is influential industry consultancy MediaLink, which often consults clients and agencies on their strategic capabilities.

Hudson MX is an early-stage technology company that has entered into a number of private beta deals with leading media-buying agencies to deploy its cloud-based media buying and accounting system, especially for local TV buys.

The company was founded by J.T. Batson in 2016. Batson was head of the digital operations at Donovan Data System, before it merged with MediaBank to form MediaOcean.

Ascential, which is a publicly traded company listed on the London Stock Exchange, on Friday reported a sharp drop in profits for 2019 due to acquisition costs.

For 2019, Ascential recorded pretax profit of $13.2 million, a 65% drop from 2018.