Yahoo to buy minority stake in Taboola in advertising deal

Taboola.Com

28/11/2022 13:23

Nov 28 (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc will acquire a nearly 25%
stake in advertising tech firm Taboola Inc  TBLA.O  and become
its largest shareholder, the companies said in a joint statement
on Monday, in a push to deepen advertising on their digital
properties.
    As part of the partnership, Taboola will power native
content and advertisements across Yahoo's sites for 30 years,
while the U.S. tech company will get one seat on Taboola's
board. 
    Taboola's engine pushes links to articles paid by
advertisers - known as native advertising - on sites of
publishers including CNBC and NBC News.
    The acquisition comes at a time when advertisers have
downsized their budgets in response to macro-economic
challenges, affecting businesses from media publishers to big
tech platforms such as Alphabet Inc  GOOGL.O  and Meta Platforms
Inc  META.O .
    Taboola, whose shares surged 25% in pre-market trade on
Monday, expects the deal to boost its revenue, EBITDA and free
cash flow. 
    The two companies estimated that the partnership will help
generate $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025, but did not
provide any further financial details. 
    The companies plan to seal the deal in the first quarter of
2023. Taboola said it will host a special general meeting on
Dec. 30 to seek shareholders' approval.
    The move is the boldest bet by Yahoo under its new owner. 
New York-based Verizon Communications Inc had sold the
once-popular email service to Apollo Global Management  APN.N 
in May 2021.
 (Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry
Jacob-Phillips)
 ((yuvraj.malik@thomsonreuters.com;))