MUMBAI: Sports media company Nazara Technologies has entered an agreement to acquire 55% controlling stake in programmatic advertising and monetisation company Datawrkz, for a total consideration of upto Rs 124 crore, valuing the company at Rs 255 cr.
Nazara declared the deal is being done through two tranches. In the first tranche, it will acquire a 33% stake for Rs 60 cr, of which Rs 35 cr is partly payable in cash and the remaining 25 cr will be paid either through cash or share swap. It reserves an option to acquire an additional 22% in the second tranche that is expected to close in Q4 FY23, the firm said in a regulatory filing.
Founded in 2013 by Senthil Govindan, Bengaluru-based Datawrkz is an advertising technology firm that offers publishers, agencies and brands a range of programmatic advertising and ad monetization solutions to improve their user and revenue growth.
The firm’s product comprises of Vizibl that includes a real-time bidding platform as well as a customer data platform. On the supply side, Datawrkz says it drives higher revenue for publishers from their ads through its suite of ‘high engagement’ ad units called AdPrimus and a header bidding and mediation solution BidAmp, the company said in statement. Header bidding enables publishers to simultaneously offer ad space out to several supply-side platforms or advertising exchanges at once.
The company also serves as an independent trading desk to power digital media strategy, planning and execution on behalf of its agency and brand clients in a ‘transparent financial model’.
For the calendar year 2021, Datawrkz posted a combined revenue of Rs 90.7 crore and EBITDA margin of 12 percent with around 70 percent of its revenue coming from the United States.
Nazara Technologies said this acquisition will improve its in-house capabilities to optimise customer acquisition spends as well as improve yields on ad monetisation of its large consumer base.
Portfolio companies of Nazara Technologies currently include Nodwin Gaming, SportsKeeda, Next Wave Multimedia, developer of World Cricket Championship (WCC), Paper Boat Apps, developers of the popular gamified learning app Kiddopia, and Halaplay, Qunami and OpenPlay in the skill based real money gaming vertical.
