Opinion: Perspective - Start-ups are selling up while the selling is good.(advertising agencies)

There goes another. 2005 has become the year that the independents sold out. Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners in February, Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest in July and now Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy.

There are many reasons why it's happening now. When DLKW sold for a headline figure of pounds 38 million to Creston, a starting gun was fired. Witnessing Delaney, Lund, Knox and Warren become millionaires overnight was an inspiring spectacle for its closest rivals. And as the names of the above agencies suggest, each has a group of founders positioned to do well out of any sale.

But the DLKW sale also triggered a rush because the number of buyers offering credible cash will eventually run dry (if it hasn't already).

There's also been a window of opportunity: in 2005, the advertising downturn finally lifted. The independents, particularly those that have now sold, performed well in the downturn, often at the expense of networked agencies.

With the advertising market growing again, the networks are emerging fighting fit and hungry, posing more of a threat to the young agencies.

These factors make the gameplan of the remaining independents Clemmow Hornby Inge, Mother and Naked a bit of an enigma. It seems the founders of CHI are enjoying running their own agency too much for an immediate sale. Additionally, as last week's Toyota, Argos and Teletext trio of wins suggests, the agency still has a lot of growth left in it. The value of CHI is still rising.

Although the motivation of the MCBD, DLKW and VCCP founders may have being realising as much cash as possible, there is no sense that the protagonists have given up the hard grind. In fact, MCBD's deal sees them locked in for six years.