Ad Tech Briefing: Stagwell’s Freestar deal brings buying and selling under one roof

Freestar serves more than 1,000 publishers whose properties generate nearly a billion ad requests daily, giving the group a substantial supply-side operation alongside its media buying capabilities.

The immediate application is within Stagwell’s own portfolio. Travel publisher Ink and airport television network ReachTV are among the properties expected to use Freestar for programmatic sales, while Freestar’s external publisher clients could also gain access to advertisers and capabilities across Stagwell’s network. Whether that produces better commercial outcomes remains to be demonstrated.

The investment thesis

The acquisition builds on Stagwell Curate, the marketplace launched in July to package publisher inventory before bidding. Together, curation and monetization give Stagwell more influence over how it assembles, presents, and sells advertising opportunities. They also put more of the infrastructure supporting automated buying inside the holding company.

The econonmics behind Stagwell’s investment thesis are simple: agencies face pressure to improve margins while proving that more of an advertiser’s budget reaches working media. Ergo, owning infrastructure can reduce reliance on outside vendors and give the group greater visibility into transaction costs. It can also allow Stagwell to retain revenue previously earned by intermediaries.

Benefits to whom?

But savings for the holding company do not automatically become savings for advertisers or higher payments for publishers. Those outcomes depend on pricing, contractual terms, and how the company handles transactions involving its own businesses. Bringing more steps under one owner changes where the fees sit; it does not, by itself, establish whether they fall.

For advertisers, the practical questions concern inventory selection and incentives. Can buying teams demonstrate why a Freestar-connected publisher was selected? Are clients told when Stagwell earns revenue from both buying services and publisher monetization? Can they compare those arrangements with alternatives on equivalent terms?

Publishers have their own questions. They will want to know whether Freestar continues to prioritize their revenue, how access to Stagwell demand works, and whether commercial advantages require adopting additional group services. Ownership creates those questions without establishing that buying will become biased or publisher interests will be compromised.

The broader significance is that holding companies increasingly want control of the technology layer as well as the client relationship. As AI agents take on more buying decisions, ownership of inventory packaging and execution may become more valuable. The transparency test is whether clients can still see how those decisions are made.

Freestar therefore gives Stagwell an opportunity to offer a more direct route between advertisers and publishers. The challenge is showing where the efficiencies accrue, what the group earns along that route, and whose interests determine the destination.

Platforms retain control over access

Elsewhere, Apple’s Safari restrictions offer another example of how control over advertising infrastructure shapes who can participate. In its October 19 explanation, Apple argued that email-derived identifiers recreate cross-site tracking after third-party cookies. Its response targets the network infrastructure supporting identity resolution, affecting companies whose identifiers publishers have adopted to preserve addressability.

Apple presents the changes as privacy protections. Their commercial effect is to make technical access depend on the browser owner’s rules, even where publishers and vendors believe their arrangements are legitimate. The questions now concern implementation, scope and what publishers can retain within those limits.

Meta’s restrictions on TikTok advertising illustrate the same access problem through a different mechanism. Business Insider reported that Meta blocked ByteDance advertising in several markets because it did not want to help a competitor attract users. TikTok redirected spending toward other platforms.

Neither development proves that open advertising standards lack value. Both show their limits: systems can be technically interoperable, but their owners can still restrict data flows or refuse transactions. Automated buying still operates within those commercial and technical boundaries.

What we’ve heard

“At the moment, everything gets built in silos, and then we have to figure out how to connect it in the middle.”

— Faisal Karmali, vp of digital operations for CNN International Commercial, on the need for buyers and sellers to develop interoperable agentic infrastructure.

Numbers to know

The next round of Q3 earnings calls for publicly listed ad tech companies are on the horizon, here are the key dates to know:

• November 4: Taboola, Magnite, AppLovin are scheduled to issue their third-quarter results.
• November 5: Teads, Unity Software are scheduled to issue their third-quarter results.
• November 9: PubMatic is scheduled to issue its third-quarter results.

What we’ve covered

Salesforce’s $5.7 billion Braze deal puts marketers at an ecosystem crossroads 

The planned acquisition promises closer connections between customer data and campaign execution, while raising questions about independence, portability and reliance on one supplier.

Indie agencies want The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP to acknowledge their buying power with negotiating leverage

Smaller agencies say reseller fees and commercial requirements constrain their ability to secure competitive buying terms.

What we’re reading

TikTok is shifting advertising to YouTube after Meta says ‘no thanks’

Meta took a bold stance this month by blocking ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, from running ads on Meta apps in some markets. 

Kevel secures $52 million to scale AI-driven infrastructure

The ad tech infrastructure company’s largest funding round to date accelerates product innovation, transparent AI decisioning, and global expansion for commerce networks.

Basis laid off 79 of our colleagues, about 10% of the company. 

Company founder and CEO Shawn Riegsecker announced the “difficuly decision” last week, claiming it was to accomodate “new work that calls for different skills, or team capabilities.”

Expanding our defenses against financial scam ads

Google is bringing its Financial Services Verification program to prevent brand impersonation and stop bad actors from reaching consumers.