In an all-cash takeover valuing the adtech firm at approximately $420 million, Singapore-headquartered mobile marketing group Affle acquires Perion Network to expand its footprint across North America and Europe, both companies announced on 1 November 2026. The transaction will take the Tel Aviv-based digital advertising platform private following years of dual listing in New York and Israel.
Key points
- Affle 3iL, an Israel-based subsidiary of Affle, will pay $11.70 per share in cash for Perion Network, a 34.5% premium over its prior closing price.
- The transaction values Perion at roughly $420 million and includes debt financing from Citibank with no financing condition attached.
- Perion will delist from Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange while retaining its brand and adding roughly 600 staff to Affle across developed markets.
- A 40-day go-shop provision gives Perion until 11 December 2026 to evaluate rival acquisition proposals before an expected close in early 2027.
Terms of the all-cash buyout
Under the definitive merger agreement, Affle 3iL Ltd., a step-down subsidiary of Affle 3i Limited, will acquire 100% of Perion’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares for $11.70 each in cash. As Perion announced, the offer represents a 34.5% premium to its closing stock price on 30 October 2026, the final trading session before the deal was signed.
The buyout is structured as a reverse triangular merger. A newly formed, wholly owned subsidiary of Affle will merge into Perion Network Ltd., leaving Perion surviving as an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Affle. The transaction covers all issued shares alongside unvested equity awards, which will settle in line with their existing vesting timetables. Once the transaction completes, Perion will delist its ordinary shares from both Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Citibank is supplying committed debt financing to back the acquisition. Affle confirmed that the deal is not subject to any financing contingencies and will be funded through a mix of bank credit and available cash reserves. Transaction costs and associated expenses will be booked onto Affle’s opening balance sheet because Perion is a public entity.
Why Affle wants Perion’s ad inventory
Affle has built its primary business around mobile marketing and consumer conversions across emerging markets such as India, South-East Asia and Latin America. The company sells campaigns under a cost-per-converted-user model, which charges advertisers only when an engagement produces a measurable consumer action, such as an application download, registration or transaction.
Perion operates further up the advertising sales funnel, selling campaign tools for connected television, retail media networks and digital out-of-home billboards. It runs operations primarily in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel. In recent years, Perion consolidated three corporate acquisitions under its unified Perion One platform and introduced Outmax, an artificial intelligence agent designed to automate media buying across multiple channels.
Affle plans to link Perion’s brand relationships in mature economies with its own lower-funnel conversion algorithms. Anuj Khanna Sohum, chairperson, managing director and chief executive of Affle, said in the company’s stock-exchange filing that the purchase supports the group’s target of scaling its conversion model across developed territories. Merging upper-funnel display ads with performance tracking is becoming a standard playbook across corporate acquisitions, much like when software groups consolidate specialised tools, as seen when Digital Science acquires Jenni AI to bridge automated drafting and research workflows.
Affle expects the enlarged business to operate across more than 100 countries and employ approximately 600 additional staff in developed markets. Perion will continue to trade under its existing corporate brand following the completion of the sale.
Balance sheet and shifting financial fortunes
Perion enters the combination with zero debt and sizable reserves. By 30 September 2026, the Tel Aviv company had accumulated $228.3 million across bank accounts, short-term deposits and tradeable securities. Over the third quarter of 2026, Perion deployed $26.0 million on share repurchases and spent $10.9 million to purchase retail digital display specialist PRN.
Despite its healthy cash balance, Perion had faced revenue contraction over the prior three financial years. Regulatory disclosures filed by Affle show that Perion recorded revenue of $743.2 million and a net profit after tax of $115.0 million during calendar year 2023. Revenue fell to $498.3 million with a net profit of $12.6 million in 2024, before dropping to $439.9 million and a net loss of $7.9 million in 2025.
Affle stated that it will conduct a commercial contract review and adjust Perion’s revenue recognition accounting to align with its conversion-based pricing structure. The buyer forecast that it will be net debt free immediately after settlement and projected an annual revenue run rate exceeding $700 million by financial year 2028. Affle expects the transaction to add to its earnings per share within 12 months of closing.
Go-shop terms and closing timeline
The boards of directors of both businesses have approved the merger agreement, with Perion’s board voting unanimously in favour. Eyal Kaplan, chairman of Perion’s board, said directors determined that an all-cash exit delivers financial certainty and immediate cash value for equity holders.
The agreement permits Perion to run a 40-day go-shop process that expires at 11:59 pm Israel time on 11 December 2026. During this window, Perion and its financial adviser may actively solicit, receive and evaluate competing takeover bids from third parties. Perion stated that it does not plan to release rolling updates on the go-shop process unless required by securities regulations.
If no superior proposal emerges and succeeds, closing remains subject to customary legal hurdles. These include a vote by Perion’s shareholders and US antitrust clearance, which requires the statutory review window under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act to elapse or be cut short by regulators. Affle indicated an estimated timeline of roughly 180 days to finalise the merger, pointing to an expected close in early 2027.
