Taboola and Outbrain call off their $850M merger

guest · Sep 8, 2020

Taboola and Outbrain call off their $850M merger
Merger of Clickbait Giants Taboola and Outbrain Is Called Off
September 9, 2020
https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/08/taboola-and-outbrain-call-off-their-850m-merger/

Online advertising is a game of scale, but one attempt to consolidate two competitors to better take on Google and Facebook has fallen apart.

Taboola and Outbrain, startups that each provide publishers with ad-based content recommendation platforms, have called off a planned $850 million merger that would have valued the combined company at more than $2 billion. The news of the cancellation had been rumoured in the Israeli press, and TechCrunch has now confirmed it with both companies, too.

The deal had been years in the making but was only finally pulled together about 11 months ago, in October 2019. However, in the interim, a combination of factors got in the way of it progressing.
Click to expand...

Both Taboola and Outbrain were profitable going into the deal, each claiming some $1 billion in annual revenues. Taboola has raised some $160 million from investors that include Comcast, Fidelity and Pitango. Outbrain had raised $194 million, with investors including Index, HarbourVest and Lightspeed.

From what we understand, both companies will continue looking at ways they can continue to grow, even if it’s not as a team. That will include weighing up other strategic acquisitions and other opportunities, since some truisms remain in the worlds of media and advertising.

“Scale and reach are critical to being successful in this market,” said our source.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Taboola and Outbrain call off their $850M merger

guest Guest

Log in or Sign up

Taboola and Outbrain call off their $850M merger

guest Guest

Useful Searches