In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development.
This week, Forever 21 is likely to be salvaged by several investment groups. Meanwhile, Evergage is acquired by Salesforce and Spotify gains another popular podcast network, The Ringer.
Forever 21 is being recovered by Simon, Brookfield, and Authentic
A consortium consisting of Simon Property Group Inc., Brookfield Property Partners LP and Authentic Brands Group LLC has proposed a $81 million bid to acquire Forever 21, the fast-fashion company once worth nearly $6 billion.
Forever 21 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September and has already shut down nearly 100 locations. With over 800 stores still in operation, mall owners fear that the liquidation of Forever 21’s assets will leave too much vacant real estate in their malls.
Simon and a Brookfield affiliate made a similar transaction in 2016 when they bought Aeropostale out of bankruptcy.
This may be the best case scenario for Forever 21, as they’ve struggled to garner enough money to even file for bankruptcy. Being acquired by this consortium of buyers may be the only way to keep the brand alive.
Evergage
Salesforce, the global leader in customer relationship management (CRM), acquired Evergage, a personalization and customer data platform (CDP).
Evergage creates solutions for businesses to interface with customers by collecting, analyzing, and responding to user behavior on websites for real-time personalization. Evergage greatly complements Salesforce’s products by creating more relevant customer experiences to drive business-customer relations.
Evergage serves many well known customers such as Autodesk, Carhartt, CenterState Bank, Citrix, Publishers Clearing House, Zumiez, and more.
Spotify gains The Ringer
Spotify Technology S.A. announced that it is buying Ben Simmons’ sports and entertainment website The Ringer, a popular sports podcast network with 100 million downloads every month.
The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Ringer made $15 million last year. According to Spotify CEO, The Ringer is very important in the sports audio space, dubbing it “the next ESPN.”
In an effort to diversify and transform itself into an audio powerhouse, Spotify has been very active on the acquisition front. The music streaming company made three podcast acquisitions last year with Gimlet Media, Anchor, and Parcast. Spotify continues to solidify itself as a more formidable player in the podcast space.
In Other News
Other noteworthy deals and developments this past week include:
- Cards Against Humanity acquired ClickHole, a satirical media/news website, from G/O Media. The terms were not disclosed, but sources from the Wall Street Journal reported a sales price of less than $1 million.
- Taylor Morrison, one of the largest home building companies in the United States, has acquired William Lyon Homes for an implied value of $2.4 billion including assumption of debt. The combined company will have a portfolio of nearly 80,000 lots and 430 active selling communities.
- Enterprise software company Infor is selling to Koch Industries, Inc. in a deal believed to be worth $13 billion. After completion of the deal, Infor will be a standalone subsidiary of the general conglomerate Koch Industries, and the company will remain independently operated.
- Macy’s, Inc. announced that, as part of its plan to cut costs and refocus business goals, it will close roughly 125 department stores in weak malls in the next three years. The department store company will also close its dual headquarters in Cincinnati and slash roughly 2,000 corporate jobs.
