New York advertising technology giant Taboola has agreed the acquisition of UK rival Dianomi in a deal worth up to £27 million.
Dianomi – founded more than 20 years ago – listed in 2021 with a share price of 332.50 pence and hit a high of 485p that year. However it has been largely downhill since then: it had sunk as low as 12p earlier this year, and was recently sitting around 26p.
Earlier this month it said it had returned to top-line growth after reporting a 2% rise in first-half revenue to £13.4m, underpinned by widened partnerships with CNN News and Associated Press. Dianomi also signed up 67 new premium advertisers in the period, a 56% jump on the prior year, and heralded the launch of AI-powered tools.
Taboola claims to have secured support from shareholders controlling more than three-quarters of Dianomi’s share capital for the deal.
It is for 64p in cash and a contingent consideration of up to 24p in cash. These are worth £19m and £27m respectively – or 68% and 132% to the closing price of 38p per Dianomi share yesterday.
Taboola works with thousands of businesses who advertise directly on Realize, its ad platform, reaching over 600m daily active users across publishers such as NBC News and Yahoo, and OEMs such as Samsung and Xiaomi.
“I am immensely proud of the differentiated position Dianomi has built over more than 20 years, underpinned by our technology, specialist expertise and long-standing relationships with many of the world’s leading publishers and advertisers,” said Rupert Hodson, co-founder and CEO of Dianomi (pictured).
“As the digital advertising market continues to evolve, we believe the combination with Taboola will provide Dianomi with the additional scale, technology and resources to compete and grow in this changing market.
“The Dianomi board believes the acquisition represents an attractive outcome for shareholders and creates a strong platform for the future of the business.”
Adam Singolda, CEO of Taboola, said: “Dianomi has demonstrated a commitment to connecting the largest financial brands in the world with their target audience to power successful performance-driven advertising.
“Dianomi’s focus on helping advertisers to reach potential consumers within business and finance is a great complement to Taboola’s ability to drive performance within these verticals and across all other verticals as well.
“Together with Dianomi, we will be able to offer an even larger, highly curated, trusted network of publishers that advertisers can tap into to reach audiences, via our Realize performance advertising platform.”