Internet Companies and Ad Agencies in Competition?

The conversation between ad agencies and internet companies has been a strained one. In ad agency strategy sessions I have been received as a villain and a hero. In reality I am neither, but I would appreciate being treated as a business person. Many of us were subjected to Bear Stearns' ridiculous valuations. We believed that a our business could be worth a billion after two years of operation, and so did our investors. We believed we would change the way the internet worked. Those days are gone, and we've grown into business people that know one thing in today's economy: Your offering has to show tangible financial benefits to your client. The days of speculation are over, the recent economic recession has taught us this. So, when I see articles from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival "Internet Companies and Ad Agencies Go From Old Enemies to New Friends", I am heartened. This has happened before when Omnicom Group invested in Agency.com, LiveTechnology and Razorfish at the turn of this century. Interestingly, nine years later, (WPP and Omnicom Group are arch rivals) WPP is now rumoured to be acquiring Razorfish from Microsoft. The difference in 2009, is that we have learned a lot more about the true value of the internet.