• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 3, 2024

In a surprising turn of events, three of the big agency holding companies -- Interpublic, Omnicom and WPP -- have bought into Mediaocean, the near-monopoly provider of agency tech, including media-buying processing systems. The move follows the demise of Hudson MX, a startup backed by early stage investors including consultant and deal-maker Michael Kassan, who ironically brokered the holding companies' investments in Mediaocean.

According to Ad Age, which first reported news of the deal, each of them paid $20 million to $25 million for a small equity stake in Mediaocean, as part of a deal that includes their participation in a new "Certified Service Partner" program announced by Mediaocean this morning.

The new program enables the holding companies to integrate and offer Mediaocean's Flashtalking and Protected by Mediaocean for ad serving, creative optimization, paid social optimization, fraud detection and brand safety solutions to their clients.

It's not clear why the equity investment and CSP programs were announced together, but a Mediaocean spokesperson confirmed that the program does not require other Mediaocean clients to invest in order to participate in it.

While the program likely has implications for other agency tech providers -- especially Google -- it's unclear why agencies now have to be certified in order to utilize Mediaocean's technology for their clients or what benefits they get for being certified.

The development is perplexing for a number of other reasons, including the fact that the holding companies have long loathed Mediaocean's market dominance of Mediaocean, and have historically backed startups to rival it.

Mediaocean itself was created when precursor agency tech provider Donovan Data Systems merged with Publicis-backed startup Mediabank. And while no holding company was an investor in Mediaocean's most recent challenger, Hudson MX, Omnicom pledged to assist with Hudson MX's sale when it acquired Flywheel Digital from Ascential plc, which was in the process of selling it.

While no parties have officially announced the status of Hudson MX, it is believed to have ceased most if not all of its operations.

It's website remains active, however, including testimonials from both Kassan and former Ascential chief Duncan Painter, who now runs the Flywheel Digital operations at Omnicom, which bought it from him.

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In any cases, Mediaocean's official announcement says both its new Certified Service Provider program and investment opportunity "may be expanded to additional agencies."

What say you, Publicis, Dentsu, Havas, Horizon, etc., etc., etc.?