Weeks after going public on the Nasdaq via a SPAC merger, Israeli content recommendation firm Taboola announced that it was acquiring LA-based ad solutions company Connexity for USD 800 million in a bid to expand its offerings.
Taboola indicated that it plans to finance the transaction with USD 260 million in cash, USD 300 million from committed debt financing, and approximately USD 240 million through shares.
The deal is Taboola’s fifth acquisition and will add over 200 people to its team, bringing the number of total employees around the world to approximately 1,600. Connexity CEO Bill Glass and the company’s management team will lead the newly formed business unit at Taboola, according to the announcement.
Connexity is one of the world’s largest e-commerce media platforms, with over 1,600 direct merchants, such as Walmart, Macy’s, and eBay, and 6,000 publishers like Condé Nast, Hearst, Vox Media, and News Corp Australia. The company works with merchants to place digital ads with publishers, reach new customers, and drive sales. According to the announcement, Connexity reaches more than 100 million unique shoppers per month and has an index of more than 750 million products.
Taboola indicated in the statement that the acquisition of Connexity aligns with its “Recommend Anything” growth strategy “to introduce new types of recommendations and enter new segments while leveraging its significant scale and recommendations platform to deliver even greater value to its 9,000 digital property partners, 13,000 direct advertisers, and 500 million daily active users.”
In a blog post on Friday, Taboola founder and CEO Adam Singolda wrote that one of the most exciting areas for the company in recent years was e-commerce, a market worth more than USD 35 billion.
“By combining our organizations, cultures, massive data, reach, and direct access to publishers, advertisers, and merchants, we are taking a huge step towards achieving our vision. We’ll be at the forefront of powering recommendations for the open web, behind every merchant in the world, leveraging Taboola to reach their clients outside of walled gardens,” Singolda said.
“Together with Connexity, we can achieve our shared dream. Amazon has millions of merchants, but merchants mainly have Amazon. That changes today,” he wrote.
“E-commerce is the future of the open web. Consumers will soon be buying outside of Amazon, on publishers’ sites next to trusted editorial content more frequently than they are today,” Singolda said in the company’s announcement.
Glass said the acquisition deal with Taboola is “a natural fit and a huge win for both of our customers.”
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The article was originally published by NoCamels, a leading news website covering breakthrough innovation from Israel for a global audience.