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Ybrant Digital will buy PriceGrabber, LowerMyBills and ClassesUSA.com, owned by the UK-based Experian for $175 million to acquire a total business of $283 million.
The three portals offer services on comparative shopping, personal finance and higher education, respectively.
The deal is expected to propel Ybrant Digital into top 1-2 slots in the league of digital marketing firms from its 25-30 standing. At present, ValueClick with about $600 million of revenues takes the top slot.
LowerMyBills.com provides aggregated information from 500 service providers across multiple categories, including home loans, credit cards, auto and health insurance. ClassesUSA.com is a higher-education portal with two million visitors and 300 college and university partners.
The Hyderabad-based firm will pay $100 million in cash, while the remaining payout would be through seller notes. It will raise a bridge loan of $100 million from ICICI Bank and Credit Suisse. “After the merger with LGS is completed in the next few weeks, we will raise funds through QIPs and pay out the loans,” Mr Suresh Reddy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ybrant Digital, said.
Announcing the deal with the Los Angeles-based businesses of Experian, he said the buy would help the firm in becoming a major player in digital marketing. “Experian is one of the top five Internet advertisers in the US, while Ybrant is a leading digital advertiser in the rest of the world,” he said.
Ninth acquisition
This would be the ninth acquisition for Ybrant. It acquired seven firms, working in various digital marketing areas, while merging with LGS a software solutions and services firm. Barring LGS acquisition, all other buys were smaller ones.
Today's buy is a big ticket one, considering the fact that the combined turnover of Ybrant Digital-LGS is put at $250 million.
“We have signed an agreement with top management of the businesses we bought to stay with the firm for at least two years,” Mr Reddy said.
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