Israeli digital advertising agency Matomy Media Group (LSE:MTMY) entered this summer with great ambition, reviving its intention to issue an initial public offering (IPO) in July, subsequently successfully raising $70 million.
Shortly after becoming a publicly listed entity on London’s stock exchange, the firm sold a 20% stake to major investor Publicis for $66 million, however the company’s growth did not stop there.
Today, the firm, which has a number of FX firms within its client portfolio, has announced that it has acquired Europe’s leading mobile programmatic advertising platform, MobFox, for a total consideration of $17.6 million.
Through this investment, Matomy’s clients and media partners will gain access to innovative mobile programmatic advertising solutions, including demand- and supply-side-platforms (DSP and SSP) and a single gateway for mobile, video and native ad inventory management via a real-time bidding (RTB) marketplace.
Matomy Media Group is acquiring MobFox via an asset purchase transaction for a total consideration of $17.6 million, $10.1 million of which Matomy Media Group will pay in cash and $7.5 million of which in newly-issued shares, reflecting a price per share of 260 pence. MobFox’s shareholders may be entitled to an additional payment, commencing 24 months following the closing of the asset purchase transaction, based on MobFox’s 2015-17 financial performance.
MobFox’s revenue run-rate is $15 million – $17 million for 2014. Subsequent to the acquisition and integration of MobFox’s platform, the enhanced mobile activity of Matomy is expected to contribute approximately 20% of the company’s global revenue in FY2014 (on a pro-forma basis), up from 7% in FY2013. Matomy expects that MobFox’s bespoke technology will enable it to set a goal of 50% of revenues coming from mobile activity within less than five years.
As part of the acquisition, MobFox executives and other key personnel will join the Matomy team, which already has nine offices around the world, including its global headquarters in Israel, and regional headquarters in Germany, Spain, Mexico and the United States. MobFox’s London office will become Matomy’s UK branch office.
Commenting on the acquisition, Matomy CEO Ofer Druker made a corporate statement: “The impressive growth of programmatic and mobile advertising has made it clear that both will form an important part of the future of digital advertising. MobFox has built an excellent mobile programmatic advertising solution, and its business fits perfectly into our vision, complementing our performance-based advertising capabilities. We make it a priority to invest in companies that have developed proven innovative technologies and solutions that will give our advertising clients and media partners unrivalled access to these services. With MobFox, we will continue to expand our capabilities in mobile and programmatic advertising, which are key growth engines for our business.”
Julian Zehetmayr, founder and CEO of MobFox, added: “Companies in the mobile advertising industry constantly talk about the need for scale and quality in their operations, so partnering with a company like Matomy that offers both advertisers and publishers a global multi-channel performance-based advertising solution makes perfect sense. The resources and support of Matomy will help MobFox build upon our strategy of delivering innovative mobile programmatic advertising and monetisation technology and will drive further success for our customers. We look forward to leveraging Matomy’s expertise and sharing ours to make our combined solutions even better.”
To read the full announcement from Matomy Media Group, click here.