January 29, 2025  |  SIGN UP

Michael Bürgi
SENIOR EDITOR, MEDIA BUYING AND PLANNING

Two years ago, I wrote quite a few stories on independent media agencies finding their footing against holding companies, ending the year declaring a narrow win for the indies. A lot has changed since then. For one, private equity has started buying and merging independents to form larger shops. Other agencies have taken their businesses to the next level by beating out larger competitors to land bigger clients. 

At the same time, holding companies have started buying out indies with specialty operations. Just this week, Publicis bought out Atomic 212, a major indie operating in Australia and New Zealand. Stagwell similarly has been buying up shops in parts of world it could stand to beef up -- the latest being ADK Holdings in Japan a few weeks ago.

Could this be the beginning of an M&A wave among indies across the globe? That will be the case for some, while others look to simply beat out the holdcos by staying smaller.     

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