ironSource is on its way toward the largest public offering ever by an Israeli company. The Tel Aviv-based web monetization company will merge into the Thoma Bravo Advantage SPAC (special purpose acquisition company), raising up to $2.3 billion in cash at a value of approximately $11.1b., the companies said Monday.
After the sale, some $800 million will go to the company and $1.5b. to investors selling shares in the second element of the transaction. Reports indicate that all of the company’s 850 employees (650 in Israel) have options that will be worth a total of $150m.
Among the company’s investors are Viola Ventures, Tal Barnoach’s Disruptive Technologies Venture Capital, 83North, Saban Ventures, Leumi Partners and Clal Industries.
“Joining forces with Thoma Bravo Advantage to bring ironSource to the public markets presents an opportunity to partner with the world’s leading software investor to achieve the next level of growth,” said Tomer Bar-Zeev, CEO and cofounder of ironSource.“Despite our previous progress pursuing a traditional IPO, when we met with Thoma Bravo Advantage we found an alignment of vision and shared conviction about the long-term growth we can drive at ironSource that made them the perfect partner as we take this next step in growing our company, and the market as a whole.”
ironSource’s platform is designed to enable any app or game developer to turn their app into a scalable, successful business by helping them to monetize and analyze their app and grow and engage their users through multiple channels, including unique on-device distribution through partnerships with leading telecom operators and original equipment manufacturers such as Orange and Samsung.
ironSource powers the business growth of 87% of the top 100 games and has been ranked multiple times as one of the top three platforms for driving both quality and scaled user growth by leading industry indexes, the company said. In addition, 14 of the 19 games published through the ironSource platform were ranked in the top 10 most downloaded games on either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store over the course of 2020, and one of them – Join Clash – was the most downloaded game in the world in February 2021.
The company recorded 2020 revenue and adjusted EBITDA of $332m. and $104m., respectively, with revenue at 83% year-over-year growth. Following the transaction, the company is expected to have approximately $740m. of unrestricted cash.
A SPAC, is a shell company with no assets that is created and floated on the market, and later gets filled in by merging with the corporation, effectively a work-around for the heavy bureaucracy of filing an IPO.