MDC to Buy TargetCast TCM IT is déjà vu all over again, Madison Avenue style, as an agency holding group is, for the second time in two months, buying a leading independent media shop. The holding company is MDC Partners, which acquired RJ Palmer in January. MDC is to formally announce on Tuesday that it is acquiring a majority stake in TargetCast TCM, a New York media agency that has 110 employees who work on accounts with more than $600 million in billings from clients that include AMC, Expedia, Hotels.com, New York Life and Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. And to underscore the growing importance of services like media buying and media planning in a digital era, with the acquisition MDC will form a division devoted to its media agencies, called Maxxcom Global Media. Steven J. Farella, chairman and chief executive of TargetCast TCM, will also serve as chief executive of the Maxxcom division. (In another déjà vu aspect of the deal, MDC used Maxxcom as a name for a division from 1999 to 2003. The revival is not unlike a decision by the Chrysler Group to bring back Dart as the name for a new Dodge. And, of course, the initials of Maxxcom Global Media spell out "MGM," but that appears to be a coincidence rather than a look back at the golden age of moviemaking.) The MDC media agencies that will come under the Maxxcom umbrella, in addition to TargetCast TCM and RJ Palmer, are Integrated Media Solutions, Media Kitchen and Varick Media Management. The billings handled by the media agencies that will be part of Maxxcom are estimated at $1.5 billion. The bulking up of MDC's holdings in media suggests that its executives were well aware their presence in the media arena has been "relatively small," as Adage.com recently described it. "We knew we needed significant media clout and scale and critical mass," said Miles S. Nadal, chairman and chief executive of MDC. Adding RJ Palmer and then TargetCast TCM will give us a tremendous platform to build from. Mr. Farella's "mandate is to figure out how to optimize the value of our total media offering," he added, and to explore matters like "acquiring further capabilities" in the media area. MDC owns all or part of 50 agencies. Most are outside the realm of media services, in segments like advertising and public relations. Among them are Allison & Partners, Anomaly, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, Laird & Partners, 72 and Sunny, Sloane & Company and Vitro. MDC is known for its acquisitive ways, making 19 deals from 2009 through 2011 and several already this year that include, in addition to RJ Palmer and TargetCast TCM, agencies like Dotbox, which specializes in social commerce. MDC also signed a joint-venture agreement last week with Peralta, an advertising agency in São Paulo, Brazil. "I think we will be more conservative going forward" in the number of agreements to be made, Mr. Nadal said, "but if unique opportunities come around, we will consider them." TargetCast TCM was such an opportunity, he added, because "we have been looking at this for a long time, five years at a minimum." "Steve has a superb reputation," Mr. Nadal said of Mr. Farella, and "he built a great management team and enjoyed tremendous growth." The purchase price for the majority stake in TargetCast TCM is estimated at $15 million to $20 million. The annual revenue of the agency is estimated at $15 million; many deals being made on Madison Avenue these days are for around one times revenue. The price tag for RJ Palmer was estimated at $25 million, including additional considerations based on future performance. The acquisition of TargetCast TCM is coming days shy of its 10th anniversary. The agency was opened in April 2002 by Mr. Farella and Audrey Siegel, who is now president for client services; they both left the MPG media agency in 2001 to found their own media shop. "We started this agency from zero, with lunch money," said Mr. Farella, who is 56, adding: "It's 10 years later. We want to take this agency to the next level, and we think with MDC we'll be able to do that. The other, larger holding companies that had approached TargetCast TCM wanted the agency "to become part of one of their media networks, or two of their networks, or part of a third network, with TargetCast as the U.S. hub," Mr. Farella said. "What we found attractive about this was that it's not taking TargetCast and making it part of something else," he added. In leading Maxxcom, Mr. Farella said, his goal would be "to reinvent what a media holding company can do for individual agencies." "There's got to be a new model, or it ain't worth doing," he added. Ms. Siegel, also 56, said an acquisition by MDC appealed to her because "with the opportunity to work with a broader group of agencies within the MDC portfolio, we will find synergies in research, how we train our talent, how we retain our talent, the development of tools." "That's very important to have as you take your business forward in a technology-enabled age," she added. With the sale of TargetCast TCM, the ranks of independent media agencies have dwindled to include Empower MediaMarketing, Harmelin Media, Horizon Media, KSL Media and Mediasmith. Will that list remain intact, or will there be another acquisition in a couple of months? Perhaps only a yogi could predict if déjà vu will strike again.