Affle 以 4.2 亿美元现金收购广告技术公司 Perion，预计 2027 年初交割

If you ask the executive leadership of Affle and Perion why the two companies are merging, the answer you’ll get is “synergies.”

Tal Jacobson, Perion’s CEO, is well aware that the term has become a total cliche. “Every time I write an email and use ‘synergy,’ Google pops up and says people don’t like that word,” he joked on Monday, the day after Affle agreed to acquire Perion for $420 million in cash.

But even so, it’s the best shorthand for what each company is missing that the other can supply, he told AdExchanger.

Affle is an India-based holding company for mobile ad tech built around performance marketing, largely in emerging markets, while Perion focuses on CTV, digital out-of-home and retail media. Most of its clients are big brands and agencies in developed markets, mainly in North America.

For the past few years, Perion has been evangelizing the concept of outcome-based advertising with its clients. But there was a hole in its offering. “We never had good performance-driven technology for mobile,” Jacobson said. “Affle has pure technology just for that.”

For its part, Affle gets a foothold with the agencies, holding companies and brands that Perion already works with, said Sameer Sondhi, Affle’s CEO of North America and chief strategic investments officer.

Perion, which has roughly 500 employees, will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary under Affle and brings the combined company’s headcount to just over 1,000 people. Jacobson, who will stay on as CEO, said that everyone from Perion is staying aboard.

LUMA Partners advised Affle on the deal, which is expected to close in early 2027.

AdExchanger spoke with Jacobson and Sondhi about how the pieces fit, what happens now to Perion’s own string of recent acquisitions and why Jacobson would rather call this a merger than a sale.

AdExchanger: Why sell to Affle and why now?

TAL JACOBSON: We don’t think about selling. We think about merging – taking two successful companies and making them a bigger engine of growth. “Selling” has a negative connotation, like somebody gave up, and that’s not the case.

Neither of us has the growth potential separately that we have together. We’ve spent a few good months working side by side, and the teams are working very well together.

Why is $420 million the right price? Perion paid $100 million alone to acquire Hivestack in 2023, $65 million for Greenbids last year and $12 million for PRN, which does in-store retail media, just a few months ago.

TJ: It’s a tricky question. For a public company, the right price is what investors will pay, and I don’t believe Perion was valued correctly in recent years. So, if the public market doesn’t see our long-term potential, why not join forces with someone who does?

The price doesn’t reflect the full long-term value, it reflects a point in time, and Affle wouldn’t buy this if it didn’t think the potential was bigger than the price.

SS: Both of us are listed, so the number is always going to be debated. There are plenty of public reference points – DoubleVerify, Nielsen, LiveRamp, IAS – and the boards have to approve. In the end, a number is a mindset thing.

Affle has been pushing a cost-per-converted-user (CPCU) model, where advertisers only pay for conversions. Will Perion’s DOOH, CTV and retail media inventory be sold that way?

TJ: Not necessarily. It depends on the channel and the customer’s goal. You can’t sell out-of-home on a CPC model, because you can’t click on an ad. But you can say, “Pay us for performance.”

Some formats might be CPC, others CPA or CPL. Whatever helps an advertiser’s business, that’s what we want to focus on.

So not CPCU, exactly, but a CPCU mindset?

TJ: We’re outcome-driven. The KPI is whatever defines success for that advertiser.

SS: With the targeting you can do on DOOH screens and the signals we get from mobile, the goal is to help clients with whatever way they’re used to buying. We don’t want to confuse them. We want to educate them.

Perion’s open web spend fell by around 23% in Q2. Doesn’t seem like a good sign for the future of the open web.

TJ: We’ve been telling investors and clients that the open web is not the future. Forget channels, focus on outcomes. When a CFO approves a budget, they don’t care if it’s websites or out-of-home.

And yes, everybody’s hyped about CTV, but if it doesn’t help the business, it doesn’t matter.

How much of this deal is about agentic AI?

TJ: Both companies have invested a lot in AI over the past two years. Our Outmax agent trades media, mostly in walled gardens, and Affle’s AI is focused on the deeper funnel and conversions. I don’t think we’ll merge the algorithms into one, but it helps to have all those tools under one roof.

SS: The systems don’t need to unify. They just need to talk to each other better.

Perion has made several acquisitions of its own and now it’s being acquired itself. How do all the nesting dolls fit together?

TJ: Affle lets every company it acquires stay independent under its own name and with its own roadmap and team. We’re not combining everything. Greenbids, for example, gives us the walled gardens – YouTube, Meta, TikTok – which neither Perion nor Affle had. PRN is just another extension of out-of-home, but inside retail stores.

The point is to sit in front of a CMO and be able to say, “Whatever you need, we probably have it.” We’ve worked hard over the past three years to roll up other companies, and this is just another phase of that.

This industry does not need 150 ad tech companies. It needs to consolidate.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

For more articles featuring Tal Jacobson, click here.