Horizon Media, the long-time independent media agency, agreed to sell a minority stake in its company to two investors, Singapore-based investment firm Temasek and New York-based investment and merchant bank LionTree.

Bill Koenigsberg, founder and CEO of Horizon Media, remains its largest shareholder. He said the moment to make a decision like this became clear a few months ago as he saw what COVID had done to the media landscape.

Horizon is the largest U.S. media agency according to the Ad Age Datacenter. Koenigsberg sees this move as an opportunity to “supersize” the dozen verticals it currently operates.

“You're going to see us get more aggressive in content, data opportunities, and other verticals that maybe we're currently not as strong in that we want to shore up,” Koenigsberg said. 

Horizon didn’t disclose how much of a minority stake the investors are getting or how much they paid. Koenigsberg called it a “mostly strategic” play for the agency, which he founded in 1989.

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“This was about the right place and right time given my growth ambition and opportunities in the marketplace,” Koenigsberg said. “I think there are going to be winners and losers in this new world, the way the landscape has changed. I think we can become more aggressive from an acquisition perspective. We can get more aggressive in terms of other offerings to our clients to drive better business outcomes and having these smart people around me with different perspectives on things gives me the opportunity to move even faster.”

“I think they both bring enormous commercial relationships and connections around the globe,” Koenigsberg said of Temasek and LionTree. “They both bring a strong corporate development capability if we want to go out and become more aggressive from an acquisition perspective and Temasek has enormous relationships across the globe with many different types of companies.”

Temasek's largest holdings in its $283 billion portfolio, as of March, were in financial services, followed by telecommunications, media and technology. 

The news comes nearly a month after Horizon opened its second office in Canada, after opening the first office in Toronto four years ago. While Horizon has been a part of global pitches in the past it will become “more aggressive globally” which also means potentially opening other offices around the globe, Koenigsberg confirmed. 

Koenigsberg has long seen the agency’s full independence as an advantage but he has been open to the downsides it also brings. 

“I’m not as strong globally,” he told Ad Age last year. “The other downside is … the fact that I don’t have publicly traded currency sometimes has hurt me.” 

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So far consultants in the industry see Horizon's move as an upgrade for the media agency.

“This is a highly strategic move to partner with a $300 billion company with its focus outside of the U.S.,” said Greg Paull, R3 principal and co-founder. “The big opportunity for Horizon is to build a deeper and broader bench of tools and talent. Deeper within specific areas such as programmatic and data and broader in the sense of global reach. Temasek, with its deep pockets and international mindset, can be a positive partner in supporting this.”

“Increasingly, media reviews this year such as Coca-Cola, Kering and Philips are becoming more global in nature,” Paull added.  Horizon is at a strategic disadvantage for theses despite their strong U.S. presence. This move will give them the path forward to gain access in the future.”

Allen & Company acted as financial advisor and Loeb & Loeb acted as legal advisor to Horizon Media. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton acted as legal advisor to Temasek.