- Taboola and Outbrain are merging in an $850 million deal. The combined company will be valued at $2 billion following the merger.
New York-based ad technology companies Taboola and Outbrain have been intensely competing for the last few years by making striking recommended content deals with advertisers and publishers. Now the two companies are merging.
Going forward, the combined company is going to be called Taboola and current Taboola CEO Adam Singolda is going to retain the position whereas Outbrain CEO Yaron Galai will be moving into an advisory role. Taboola COO Eldad Maniv and Outbrain co-CEO David Kostman will be heavily involved on the post-merger integration. And the board of directors will consist of current Taboola and Outbrain management team members.
As part of the deal, Outbrain shareholders will receive 30% of the combined companies along with a $250 million cash payout. Prior to this deal, the two companies had raised over $300 million in combined total venture capital.
Taboola and Outbrain are both profitable and the combined company is expected to hit $2 billion in gross revenue next year. Outbrain and Taboola publisher partners include CNN, The Washington Post, the BBC, CNBC, NBC, USA Today, Business Insider, etc. Outbrain reaches 1.2 billion people per month while Taboola reaches 1.4 billion people.
Both companies were founded in 2007. And Taboola said that this deal will provide “enhanced advertising efficacy and reach to marketers worldwide.”
“Over the past decade, I’ve admired Outbrain and the innovation that Yaron Galai, Ori Lahav and the rest of the Outbrain team have brought to the marketplace. By joining forces, we’ll be able to create a more robust competitor to Facebook and Google, giving advertisers a more meaningful choice,” said Singolda via The Drum.
Singolda and Galai told Vox that they expect the combination of both companies will enable them to effectively compete against companies like Facebook and Google — which are the two most dominant players in the space. And they are expecting publishers to receive more money as they will be able to attract more advertisers.
“I’m confident that together, we will be able to further our mission, which we call our Lighthouse, of bringing the best, most trustworthy content discovery capabilities to users around the world,” added Galai.
According to TechCrunch, the merger will be creating a company that would be valued at $2 billion. And the transaction value of the deal is $850 million.
This deal is subject to regulatory approval.
