Holding company Stagwell announced on October 26 that it has acquired Freestar, a technology company that helps publishers monetize their sites, according to a press release.
Freestar is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was founded in 2015 by David Friedman. Its clients include Boston Globe Media, Fortune Media, Legacy and Enthusiast Gaming, the company says. The Freestar network covers more than 1,000 publishers that process nearly a billion ad requests a day. The company says it has generated over $1 billion in revenue for publishers over the past decade.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Freestar will keep its brand, and CEO Kurt Donnell and founder David Friedman will stay in their roles. The company will join Owned Media, led by Ben Berentson, as well as the holding's media and commerce division.
Stagwell also plans to fold Freestar into its Media and Commerce ecosystem and its AI Media Machine platform. No timeline for integration has been given, and the release does not name the Owned Media units that Freestar will work with.
The practical takeaway for the market is simple: one holding company now both buys media for advertisers and sells publisher inventory through its own technology. The industry calls this setup principal media, and agencies and publishers have recently been arguing over it.
