Taboola to Become NYSE Listed at an Implied $2.6 Billion Valuation via a Merger with ION Acquisition Corp. 1 Ltd.
by on 28th Jan 2021 in News
Taboola is going public via a merger with ION Acquisition Corp. 1 Ltd. (NYSE: IACA), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, with USD $259m (£189.6m) in trust.
Taboola has also secured approximately USD $285m (£208.6m) in primary and secondary PIPE financing from institutional investors, including funds affiliated with ION and funds affiliated with Phoenix Insurance, that have committed to fund more than 20% of the PIPE.
Top tier institutional investors are anchoring the PIPE including Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Baron Capital Group, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Hedosophia, the Federated Hermes Kaufmann Funds and others.
Exor Seeds, the venture arm of Exor (holding company controlled by the Agnelli family) is joining the PIPE as Taboola envisions distributing personaliSed content into mobility platforms.
Taboola is focused on providing Open Web digital properties (including websites, devices, TV apps and mobile apps that sit outside of walled gardens) with the infrastructure they need to build, grow and monetiSe their online activities.
The transaction implies a pro forma valuation of approximately USD $2.6bn (£1.9bn) for Taboola and Taboola expects to have USD $600m (£439.1m) of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet at closing.
In 2021 Taboola plans to invest more than USD $100m (£73.2m) in R&D growth initiatives including AI, eCommerce, TV, and device manufacturers.
As part of its presentations to the PIPE investors, for 2020 Taboola projected* it would achieve approximately USD $1.2bn (£878.3m) of revenues, over USD $375m (£274.4m) of ex-TAC revenues**, approximately USD $34m (£24.9m) of operating income, representing approximately 3% of revenues, and over USD $100m (£73.2m) of adjusted EBITDA**, representing approximately 27%** of ex-TAC Revenues.
Prior to this transaction Taboola raised USD $160m (£117.1m) and had approximately USD $240m (£175.6m) of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet as of December 31, 2020.
Taboola’s recommendation platform, powered by advanced AI algorithms, provides over 1 trillion recommendations a month to approximately 500 million daily active users.
Most members of Taboola’s senior management team have been together for almost a decade.
Transaction expected to close in Q2 of 2021.
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