Israeli Internet company Perion Network Ltd. (Nasdaq:PERI: TASE:PERI) has made its first acquisition in four years: the company announced today that it had bought Septa Communications, also known as "Captain Growth", which is active in artificial intelligence (AI) in various advertising channels.
The startup, based in Kiev in Ukraine, is meant to complement the Synchronized Digital Branding solution of Undertone, a company that Perion bought in 2015 for $180 million. The current acquisition is much smaller: the acquisition price is up to $3.75 million, partially paid in cash at closing while the remainder is subject to the achievement of certain milestones and retention over the next 2 years. Perion says that the acquisition is not expected to have a significant impact on its financial results.
"Captain Growth was launched in 2017 with the vision of replacing current AI systems - ‘black boxes’ which offer virtually no user control functionality, no transparency, and no ability to find and scale the most valuable ad units - with a next generation system," Perion states in its announcement..
"Those inherent problems are all addressed with the Captain Growth platform, which ingests and analyzes ad performance data - including results by segments, creative and budget - and delivers 'Value Unlock' recommendations which users can accept or reject. If accepted, the recommendations are applied automatically and immediately. The integration of Captain Growth’s AI capabilities into Undertone will enable an even more refined level of cross-channel synchronization and intelligence, as campaigns put through Undertone will be optimized based on precision placement driven by AI-driven calculations."
"The level of AI sophistication that Captain Growth brings to Undertone represents an important step in executing our strategic vision and plan" said Perion CEO Doron Gerstel. "With Captain Growth’s proprietary ‘Value Unlock’ technology, our synchronization will now give brands the critical ability to benefit from putting the best-performing units in front of the right users at the right time - for unprecedented cross-channel engagement."
Perion Network is traded in Tel Aviv and on Nasdaq, at a market cap of $70 million.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 1, 2019
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