Not so long ago, acquisitive communication groups with cheque-book in hand and marriage in mind searched the UK ad scene in vain for potential partners.
Not any longer. Today, those groups wanting to buy have found several attractive prospects willing to be wooed to the altar.
Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners and Soul have succumbed this year, while last week, Chime Communications confirmed it was in takeover talks with Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest. Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, Clemmow Hornby Inge and Mother, meanwhile, are said to receive daily phone calls from new potential suitors.
To some onlookers, the renewed activity reflects the fact that a significant number of agencies have reached a stage at which their founders can command a sizeable capital sum while still young enough to try something new.
Simon Clemmow, for example, has had time to found two successful agencies: Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow Johnson and now CHI.
Meanwhile, buyers sense that a receding downturn means potential acquisitions will not cost silly money. There's no doubt that the independent agencies flourished in the downturn, dominating the new-business league while the networks could only look on and weep. Now the downturn is receding, there's a sense the independents feel they have peaked.
However, there's a belief that what's happening is also a manifestation of the get-rich-quick attitude now prevalent in the business.
Peter Mead, the vice-president of Omnicom and a founder of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, says: "We set up AMV because we wanted to do great ads, have some fun and create a place where people would want to work. We always thought that one day we'd realise our assets but only as a consequence of our success and not as a principle. That's less true now."
Indeed, Steve Govey, a partner at Baker Tilly, the accountancy and business specialist company that helped set up Soul and MCBD, says he often advises start-ups on how they can add value before selling.
For their part, agency chiefs who have sold blame the increasingly tough environment in which small independents operate. David Bell, who merged his Cheetham Bell agency with JWT Manchester five years ago, says: "There comes a time when you need the extra financial security that comes with being part of a big group. Before we merged, we had lost three of our best clients, through no fault of our own."
Nevertheless, some detect potential pitfalls in the acquisition frenzy that should make buyers beware and sellers cautious. Mead suggests an agency up for sale may be an indication that it is going off the boil. "Egos that get subsumed by the fear of failure can emerge once you become slightly successful," he argues. "Some agencies are selling as the cement crumbles."
This acquisition frenzy has been in stark contrast to the likes of Omnicom, which analysts believe is more likely to divest itself of some of its agencies, and WPP, which prefers the strategic acquisition of specialist operations.
Whatever happens, it's likely that, when it comes to advertising, short-termism is going to be long-term. Mead finds that sad. "Maybe there just isn't the incentive to create permanent, stable businesses any more," he laments.
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SELLER - Robert Campbell, executive creative director, McCann Erickson London
"The nicest thing would be to run a small agency and make nice ads. But when you start a small agency you earn less than you do at a big agency, so you end up resentful and selling for a large cash sum.
"The voguish thing is to sell to a holding company. In the past, it was through going public or selling to a big company and merging with a network.
"There are probably long-term tears attached to all three routes. Plcs tend to over-expand. With agencies that merge, the founders can't cope with big agency life because they are different skill-sets. We don't know what happens to those who get bought by holding companies because it's a new thing."
AGENCY CHAIRMAN - Nick Hurrell, chairman of Europe, M&C Saatchi
"It's a sign of the times that an agency can go from creation to sale in a few short years. The life-cycle of agencies has shortened. We're not as confident as we once were.
"Twenty years ago, we would expect agencies to last for decades - now they last less than a decade.
"Private equity investors look for the exit before they invest their money. In the creative business, where the founders are key to the culture, momentum and success, a focus on the exit can end the agency's most dynamic era.
"The happiest deals are those where inward investment in the agency helps it go from strength to strength. Bartle Bogle Hegarty is the best example of this. We have the same plan."
LEGAL EXPERT - Roger Alexander, chairman, Lewis Silkin
"There is a multiplicity of reasons why agencies sell. It can depend on what's happening in the founders' lives. Sometimes they change their minds. Sometimes their lives change - they want to live in a different country, some get divorced or need to pay for their children's education.
"Sometimes it's more strategic. They may have got as far as they are able to with what they have and feel that if they want to build further they're going to need greater resources to draw on. At the moment, there are lots of buyers in the market - in fact, there are more buyers than sellers. There are more people tempting agencies, after a period in which there was a dearth of purchases."
ACQUISITOR - Don Elgie, chief executive, Creston
"I don't think it's purely for financial reasons. I had to convince DLKW that while Creston is a public company that answers to shareholders, we're in it for the long term. And being on the main stock market, not on AIM, we don't have to sell if we don't want to. If someone wants to sell their shares, they just sell them on the market - you don't have to sell the whole company. That's the benefit of being a public company. The only way to get value as a private company is by selling.
"What DLKW has done is secure its future, the way it works and its branding and positioning in the market, because we don't seek to interfere in the way it runs its business."