Ascential plc acquires Perpetua Labs Inc for a maximum of $250 million

LONDON: Ascential plc announced the acquisition of Perpetua Labs Inc, an eCommerce media optimisation business that primarily targets Third party (3P1) sellers.

The acquisition is for an initial cash consideration of US$52m, plus deferred consideration payable over four years, resulting in an estimated total consideration (including the initial consideration) of between US$103m and US$162m. Total consideration payable for Perpetua, in the event that very stretching targets are reached, is capped at US$250m.

In the year ended December 2020 Perpetua recorded revenue of US$3.8m (growth of over 3x vs 2019) and an EBITDA loss of US$0.2m. At December 2020 it had annualised MRR2 of US$7.4m, with gross assets of US$10.9m.

Perpetua provides a self-service SaaS platform that helps independent sellers, as well as agencies and some larger brands, optimise the purchase of search and display advertising on Amazon and other major marketplaces.

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This marks new territory for Ascential’s Digital Commerce segment, which the business will join, and which to date has exclusively served first party (1P) vendors. Perpetua has 66 staff, based primarily in Toronto, which include the founder and CEO Rosco Hill who is the largest shareholder.

Duncan Painter, CEO of Ascential, commented: “Perpetua’s expertise serving third party vendors, through data-driven solutions, opens the door for Ascential to this large and fast-growing market segment. Combined with the global reach of our existing Digital Commerce businesses, that provide a full service offering to larger, First party, brands, we have the exciting opportunity, with Perpetua, to expand our offerings across further platforms and geographies.”