Ayima has today signed a Share Purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire 100% of the share capital in LeapThree Limited, a leading UK-based Digital Analytics and Conversion Rate Optimisation agency. The initial purchase price is GBP2.175M (25 MSEK), and consideration will be paid as a combination of 626,482 shares in Ayima Group AB, at the 15 day average traded price of 25.3SEK and the remainder in cash. Completion is dependent on financing of the cash component which will be funded either by a loan, a targeted share issue or a combination of the two. In their most recent Financial Year, LeapThree Limited achieved profit before taxation of 4.8 MSEK on turnover of 9.25 MSEK.
The deal also includes provisions for an earn-out that will provide a strong incentive for profit growth in the following three years. LeapThree will relocate their operations to Ayima’s London headquarters at 1 Lindsey Street.
According to research by HTF Market Intelligence, the digital analytics market was estimated in 2015 at USD 1.3Bn and is expected to reach USD 4.9Bn by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 20.8% from 2015 to 2022. This growth is due to the continuous increase in digital commerce and the shift of both consumer and business processes online. In addition, increasing demand for cloud-based services represents a huge growth opportunity for the Digital Analytics market. Ayima/LeapThree is primed to take advantage of this continuous growth and trend.
“LeapThree is exactly the type of acquisition we are looking for – a highly profitable business, in a growth market with a business model similar to our own.” explains Mike Jacobson, co-founder and CEO of Ayima. “Throughout the engagement process we were impressed by LeapThree’s management approach, the strength and depth of their client list and the overall team passion for analytics and in particular for innovation.”
“We have grown very rapidly in the past two years.” Comments Michael Feiner, Director at LeapThree. “But at the same time we recognise that achieving our ambitious future growth targets for Digital Analytics, Business Intelligence and Data Science would require a significant partner that can give us the backing to achieve those targets. Ayima represents a perfect partner for LeapThree with its strong client base in both the UK and US markets and its established technology infrastructure.”
This deal represents the first part of Ayima’s acquisition strategy and is an exciting talent addition to the group. The acquisition will provide a huge boost to Ayima’s stated goal of developing new revenue streams in the areas of analytics, CRO, AI and Machine Learning, whilst also adding a rapidly growing and highly profitable business. The deal will offer substantial cross-selling opportunities to Ayima’s blue-chip client base in order to further enhance revenue growth worldwide.
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For further Information:
CEO/VD Michael Jacobson
+44-20 7148 5974
press(at)ayima.com
www.ayima.com
About Ayima
Originally founded in 2007, Ayima is a digital marketing agency Specialising in SEO, PPC, Display and Social Media. With around 145 employees across its offices in London, Stockholm, New York, San Francisco, Raleigh and Vancouver, Ayima have created a number of market-leading software tools that are used by clients and agencies around the world, including ‘Updatable’, ‘Redirect Path’, ‘Page Insights’, ‘Pulse’ and ‘Appotate’.
About LeapThree
LeapThree was formed through the merger of digital analytics consultancies AEP Convert, led by Michael Feiner, and L3 Analytics, led by Peter O’Neill. Michael and Peter have over 25 years combined experience in the field of Digital Analytics. LeapThree’s clients include Heineken, FitFlop, Santander Bank, Euromoney Publications, Lakeland, Motors.co.uk, Stonegate Pubs and WorldRemit to name a few.
This information is insider information that Ayima Group AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, on July 31, 2018.
