ENLARGENeustar Inc., an advertising-technology company that provides data and analytics to marketers, on Wednesday said it agreed to be bought by a private investment group led by Golden Gate Capital for about $1.8 billion.
Stockholders will receive $33.50 per share in cash, a 21% premium to Tuesday’s closing price and a 45% premium to Neustar’s closing stock price on Nov. 11—the day before private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital’s disclosure of an equity position in the company.
The deal is valued at $2.9 billion including debt and is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2017.
“We believe this transaction will enable us to continue to execute against our strategy and strengthen our market position as a leader in marketing, risk, security and communication solutions,” said Lisa Hook, Neustar’s president and chief executive, in a statement.
Over the past few years, Neustar has aggressively moved into the marketing technology space with the help of several acquisitions, as it seeks to become a major player in the information services market and compete with the likes of Oracle, Adobe and Salesforce.
Last year, it bought MarketShare, a marketing analytics company that helps advertisers plan and analyze their ad spending and figure out which channels will drive the most sales, for $450 million.
Neustar has also hired several high-profile advertising executives including Steven Wolfe Pereira, who was named chief marketing officer of the firm earlier this year.
Earlier this year, Neustar had announced it was seeking to split its company to separate its number portability business, which helps carriers and businesses switch customer phone numbers between companies, from its information management and marketing businesses. That split is now off the table, according to a person familiar with matter.
Neustar said it has “built a robust market position around unique, hard-to-replicate data sets and the data science that provides authoritative identities, updated in real time.”
The transaction is another sign of the consolidation taking place in the marketing and ad tech space. Last month, for example, Adobe acquired video ad buying software company TubeMogul for about $450 million.
Neustar’s shares jumped 20% to $33.08 in morning trading. Before the offer was made public, the shares were down 43% from three years ago but were up 12% in the past year.
The terms of the deal to be taken private include a 30-day period for Neustar to solicit alternative proposals.
Write to Suzanne Vranica at [email protected] and Anne Steele at [email protected]
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