Perion Exits Nasdaq in $420M Sale to India’s Affle as Open-Web Squeeze Continues

Indian performance marketing firm Affle is acquiring Perion, an adtech firm focused on connected TV (CTV), digital out-of-home (DOOH), and retail media for $420 million.

The all-cash deal value comes out to $11.70 per share, a premium of 34.5% on Perion’s Oct. 30 closing price. 

Affle has traditionally used AI to help advertisers improve targeting, engagement, and sales. The companies say the deal will help deliver a more unified, full-funnel approach, bringing together Affle’s lower-funnel mobile performance marketing business and Perion’s focus on attracting upper-funnel brand dollars across CTV, retail media, and DOOH.

Together, the capabilities could support “CTV-to-cart” and “DOOH-to-cart” outcomes for advertisers, Affle hopes.

The mashup, per a statement from Affle CEO, chair, and managing director Anuj Khanna Sohum, could “unlock greater ROI for advertisers and publishers alike, while driving global scale for premium consumer conversions across industry verticals such as e-commerce, retail, and healthcare.” It will also bolster Affle’s cost-per-converted-user mobile business in developed markets and support its goal of 10x-ing its growth in a decade, Sohum said.  

With Perion’s capabilities folded in, Affle will now have “a way to both expand geographically to become global, and to garner upper-funnel capabilities in out-of-home, CTV, and commerce media,” said Terence Kawaja, founder and CEO of investment bank Luma Partners, which served as the sole financial advisor to Affle on the deal. “If you have an excellent conversion technology capability, then apply that to upper-funnel agency-led advertising solutions, you can basically turn those into outcomes,” he said.

The pairing will “create new opportunities for brands, agencies, and media owners worldwide,” Tal Jacobson, Perion CEO, added in a statement. 

But the price tag was also relatively cheap considering it’s about a fraction of what Perion used to be worth, and Perion’s on-hand cash offsets about half the cost. Excluding the roughly $228 million in cash and investments on Perion’s balance sheet as of Sept. 30, Affle is effectively paying about $192 million for the operating business. That’s roughly 3.7x the $51 million to $53 million in adjusted EBITDA that Perion has projected for this year.

Neither Affle nor Perion responded to requests for comment on the deal value.