Criteo Nears $380 Million Acquisition of AdTech Platform Iponweb

(Bloomberg) -- French online advertising firm Criteo SA is in exclusive talks to buy ad-trading platform Iponweb for $380 million, in what would be its largest-ever acquisition. 

Paris-based Criteo plans to pay $305 million in cash and $75 million in treasury shares, according to a statement on Thursday, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. 

The deal would be immediately accretive to sales and profit, helping diversify its revenue streams, the company said. Shares of Criteo were up 1.9% in pre-market U.S. trading Thursday. 

A deal would help Criteo boost its audience-targeting abilities as major browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google Chrome end support for third-party cookie technology, which was used by Criteo and others to track web users across different sites. Iponweb’s customers include online portal Yahoo!, video-streaming platform Roku Inc., advertising firm Dentsu Group Inc. and TrustX, a marketplace used by content owners such as Walt Disney Co.

Paris-based Criteo has more than doubled in Nasdaq trading this year, giving the company a market value of $2.56 billion. The firm raised its full-year revenue and profit-margin outlook in November, citing “sustained momentum” in the company’s transformation. Criteo reaffirmed the forecast Thursday. 

Iponweb’s infrastructure helps connect different ad-buying systems and allows campaigns to be directed across multiple platforms. The deal will give Criteo direct access to more publishers as well as boost the range of its offerings to marketing agencies. 

Criteo monitors people’s behavior while using web browsers or apps to determine which advertisements will appeal to them, charging advertisers when someone clicks on the ads. That business has become tougher over the past year, as a push toward greater data privacy has crimped Criteo’s ability to identify individual users. 

Chief Executive Officer Megan Clarken said last month that Criteo’s mergers and acquisitions pipeline was “always hot.” The company has an appetite to do deals, but industry valuations are “incredibly expensive” and the company will make sure it pays the right price, Clarken said at an industry conference. 

“This is a defining moment in Criteo’s transformation to drive sustainable growth and revenue diversification, creating value for all stakeholders from day one,” Clarken said in Thursday’s statement.

Iponweb was founded in the U.K. in 2001 by the husband-and-wife team of Boris and Natalia Mouzykantskii. It now has more than 400 employees spread across offices in North America, Europe and Asia, with engineering centers located in Moscow and Berlin, according to its website. 

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