On 6 March, prior to the opening of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the American marketing platform Digital Media Solutions (DMS) made a public statement on the purchase of the main company in the portfolio of Ukrainian entrepreneur Max Poliakov – ClickDealer. A year ago, the entrepreneur was forced to sell his 58% stake to the Firefly Aerospace for $1 pressed by the US government. What is happening now? Why is the asset interesting? What is the deal value? And why do Americans need a company with an office in Ukraine? Mind selected the most curious facts about the companies and the deal.
DMS was founded in 2012 by a team of athletes: Joe Marinucci, Fernando Borghese, Luis Ruelas, Matt Goodman, and David Shteif. The headquarters is located in Clearwater, Florida. Currently, the team consists of about 800 specialists.
The company's solutions allow brands in the insurance, e-commerce, home services, and healthcare industries to customise advertising.
Since April 2020, the company has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange. DMS has completed 11 M&A transactions. The penultimate acquisition was Traverse Data. This company creates solutions for marketers to reconnect with lost website visitors and re-engage inactive email addresses.
ClickDealer was founded by Max Poliakov, Tetiana Serediuk, and Dmytro Atamanyuk. The company was the headliner of GDM Group, which is a marketing services company. In 2020, the group had an estimated turnover of $100 million and a valuation of $200-300 million. ClickDealer employs about 150 people and has an office in Kyiv. The company is in the top rankings of Performance Insider and mThink Blue Book.
As part of the deal, DMS will also acquire the HomeQuote marketplace, which is part of ClickDealer. HomeQuote is a platform where homeowners can find contractors to repair their homes. The company collects traffic about potential customers mainly through Facebook, filters it and passes it on to contractor partners.
"With this acquisition, we will expand our marketplace solutions to now provide home services. We believe that this industry will do well, as homeowners usually repair their homes rather than buy new ones. We will also expand our business internationally," said Joe Marinucci, CEO of DMS.
The seller is to receive $45 million in total. Though later. "The commission paid for the acquisition at closing will be $35 million. Performance within two years of closing could result in an additional contingent payment of up to $10 million," DMS said. The company expects the ClickDealer acquisition to be accretive to DMS' revenue of $70-80 million for fiscal 2023 upon completion.
According to the Joint Centre for Housing Research, the global home renovation and repair market is expected to continue growing in 2023. Homeowners' spending will reach $485 billion. The costs of medium- and large-scale home improvement projects typically range from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.
"Home service platforms like HomeQuote.io create connections between homeowners who collect multiple quotes to compare prices for work, while helping contractors expand their reach in local markets. The Marketplace service will provide homeowners with access to thousands of contractors across the country," DMS said.