Affiliate business Acroud has completed its acquisition PMG Group’s igaming assets, in a move designed to enhance its news and direct comparison operations, as well as allowing it to offer B2B services.
The deal will see Acroud take ownership of Matching Visions, described as an igaming network with a leading position in the European casino affiliate market.
It also includes Voonix, a B2B software provider offering solutions to improve information and productivity for affiliates across a range of industries, and Traffic Grid, which delivers marketing campaigns across igaming affiliate networks.
These companies generated net sales of €9.6m in the 2020 calendar year, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of €900,000.
The purchase agreement follows Acroud and PMG signing a letter of intent to complete the deal in November last year.
However, while that set out a price of €5.5m (£4.9m/$6.7m) before earn-out for the assets, the purchase agreement sees this lowered to €4.8m. Of this total, €2.4m will be paid in cash, with the remaining €2.4m consideration satisfied through 8,000,000 newly issued Acroud shares, priced at SEK2.99 apiece.
The deal also comes with an earn-out consideration, based on the acquired companies hitting certain financial targets in the 2021 fiscal year. This could raise as high as €16m, and will be split equally between cash and shares.
Acroud added that the deal, and coupled with acquisitions of the US-facing CompareCasino, and for an as-yet unnamed sports betting brand, position the business as “a leading affiliate company in casino, sports betting and poker”.
Furthermore, it aims to become a leading B2B provider of marketing campaigns and software solutions for both igaming and other industries.
“This is another important piece of the puzzle in the implementation of Acroud’s strategy to become a fast-growing global challenger in digital comparison and news services,” its president and chief executive Robert Andersson (pictured) said.
“After the integration of the acquired assets, the focus will be on ‘operational excellence’ and on developing the new Acroud together with our new team and our new partners on an exciting journey forward.”
PMG chief executive Morten Marcussen said the synergies and strategic benefits of the transaction would “push Acroud to the next level and give the company a unique position on the market”.
“The product portfolio in the group becomes diversified and adapted for fast growth,” Marcussen explained. “Both parties and our teams share a vision that is easy to get behind. We are thrilled to be joining the ride.”
Shares in Acroud were trading up 0.35% at SEK2.88 per share in Stockholm on Wednesday (20 January) afternoon.
