Stagwell’s Freestar acquisition moves the holding company deeper into the business of selling the media its agencies help advertisers buy, with the deal, announced Oct. 26, bringing its publisher monetization technology and relationships into Stagwell’s Owned Media division.
Undoubtedly, this will extend Stagwell’s influence across the advertising supply chain, but as with Publicis Groupe’s purchase of LiveRamp, it does raise questions around transparency. However, it’s worth pointing out how Stagwell is buying Freestar’s technology and services business, not the publishers in its network. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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