Media and Games Invest SE (MGI), a digital games and media firm mainly operating in Europe and North America, has acquired global in-app advertising platform Smaato from Chinese private equity firm QS Funds for 140 million euros ($165.8 million).
The completion of the deal saw QS Funds divest its stake in Smaato, roughly five years after it acquired the firm from its founders and early investors in 2016. CVCapital, a Shanghai-headquartered cross-border investment bank that served as the exclusive financial advisor in the deal, announced in a statement on Thursday.
Based in San Francisco and Hamburg, Smaato operates a mobile-first digital advertising technology platform that offers services to publishers on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis.
The acquisition of Smaato, which reaches over 1.3 billion users worldwide every month, will “substantially increase the reach” of MGI’s media segment Verve Group, according to the statement.
Verve Group is one of the MGI’s two key business lines alongside gamigo Group, a game publisher that MGI’s CEO and chairman Remco Westermann built out of a venture that he had acquired from German publisher Axel Springer in 2012. Instead of developing games from scratch, gamigo Group adopts a “buy, integrate, build, and improve” strategy with over 25 acquisitions in the field so far.
“This transaction is another important acquisition for MGI and our fourth acquisition this year,” said Westermann in the statement.
“The cost and revenue synergies between Smaato and Verve Group, as well as technical innovations and further investment in growth will ensure further strong growth of our media segment. This acquisition is also adding critical mass to our platform by adding a substantial number of strong publishers. It is a transformative transaction for MGI’s Verve Group with stable and long-term EBITDA contributions,” he said.
QS Funds, which sold Smaato through Shanghai Qiugu Investment Partnership, will stay on the board after the transaction in the form of a strategic partnership with MGI to contribute its expertise and strengths in the Chinese market.