Criteo is the subject of a takeover approach, in yet another twist in the “will they, won’t they?” fate of the France-founded ad tech firm, which recently relocated its commercial base to Luxembourg, sparking further merger-and-acquisition speculation.
According to media reports, the recently submitted bid from private equity firms Vista Equity Partners and Quinti Capital jointly values the ad tech company at more than $50 per share, citing people familiar with the matter, boosting the company’s market capitalization, which fell 23% year-over-year prior to the speculation, to above $1 billion.
The offer represents a premium of more than 50% to Criteo’s recent share price and values the company at approximately $3.7 billion on an equity basis, per the initial Bloomberg report. Reuters subsequently reported that Criteo’s board has yet to respond to the proposal, while the bidders are said to view the company’s AI capabilities as an opportunity to expand retailers’ and advertisers’ use of its platform.
Vista Equity (again)
The name Vista Equity Partners will ring a bell with experienced observers of the sector, with the PE firm shelling out a reported $1.4 billion for TripleLift in 2021, and the same firm holding a significant stake in Integral Ad Science, although it completely exited its IAS stake after Novacap took IAS private last year (see above).Incidentally, IAS announced a shakeup of its C-suite this week, with Lisa Utzschneider ending her seven-and-a-half-year run at the helm of the ad verification firm, making way for former Slack and Bumble chief executive Lidian Jones, who takes the role as CEO, effective immediately.
