Amsterdam’s Azerion enters the audio advertising market by acquiring Brussels-based Radionomy

Amsterdam-based Azerion, a media and technology company, announced on Tuesday, November 22, that it has acquired Belgium’s Radionomy Group, a digital audio advertising and marketing solutions company.

The current deal involves the indirect disposal of all Radionomy Group B.V. subsidiaries, the Targetspot and Shoutcast brands, as well as all staff associated with the company. Targetspot’s Winamp operations are not included in the deal.

The deal is expected to close before December 31, 2022.

Transaction Overview

The entire payment will be paid in the form of Azerion shares, with the remaining portion being paid in cash. In total, 2,782,644 Azerion shares will be given to the selling shareholders upon the transaction’s conclusion, and further Azerion shares worth up to €3M will be distributed if certain earn-out requirements are met. 

The share consideration can be satisfied using the shares of Azerion that are now in treasury. A payment at closing as well as delayed instalments are included in the remaining amount that must be paid in cash. In 2022, Radionomy is predicted to provide gross revenues of between €29M and €30M.

Aim of this acquisition

With this deal, Azerion introduces a new offering in the field of audio advertising, enabling customers and partners to increase user engagement. This acquisition also strengthens Azerion’s entry into the US market and expands its capabilities to provide advertisers and publishers with a full range of advertising goods.

Atilla Aytekin, co-CEO of Azerion, says, “I am excited to add a new suite of audio advertising solutions to our product portfolio and offer more innovative ad formats, from digital radio to in-game audio, helping our advertisers and publishers achieve optimal advertising and monetisation results.”

“As a company that strives to offer a complete set of products to our customers, it is important for us to stay at the forefront of the latest market trends. We are proud to be at the centre of this nascent innovative digital technology that we expect to develop further over the next few years across the US, Europe, and beyond,” he adds. 

Radionomy has a proprietary adtech solution covering all aspects of digital audio ⎼ including radio, podcasts, audiobooks and games ⎼ and supporting in excess of 3 billion monthly impressions in over 30 markets worldwide. It is connected to a wide range of publishers with more than 15,000 audio channels in aggregate, providing a “meaningful” scale to drive targeted and efficient advertising for advertisers. 

Radionomy becomes Shoutcast

Radionomy becomes Shoutcast, according to its website. Founded by Nullsoft in 1998, Radionomy Group acquired Shoutcast from AOL in early 2014.

Shoutcast is a collection of tools that enables broadcasters to build and stream their radio station online while providing a faultless digital broadcasting experience and an innovative end-to-end solution.

Shoutcast products include easy opt-in, in Shoutcast’s sister company TargetSpot, monetisation programme. The company’s advertising platform supports global advertising with local, device and demographic targeting, both by direct sales and programmatic. The platform also helps 10,000,000 listeners each day to discover thousands of online radio stations using SHOUTcast’s largest directory on the web.

Brief about Targetspot

Founded in 2007, Targetspot claims to have been a leader and innovator in digital audio. Through its catalogue of top digital audio producers, Targetspot links companies with their target customers. 

The company offers end-to-end integration between advertisers and publishers for contextually focused, cookie-free campaigns incorporating both direct and programmatic purchases using its own technology. 

Targetspot is a pioneer in audio streaming, with its Shoutcast brand enabling online listening of more than 85,000 radio stations. Currently, it operates in nine nations and has a global workforce of about 100 employees.

Digital entertainment and media platform

Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Umut Akpinar and Atilla Aytekin, Azerion claims to have built an ecosystem that combines content, technology, and data for publishers, advertisers, and consumers.

The company’s platform provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers, supported by in-market sales and campaign management teams. 

Azerion says, “Through our technology, content creators, digital publishers and advertisers work with Azerion to reach the hundreds of millions of people across the globe that play Azerion’s games and view its distributed entertainment content to increase engagement, loyalty, and drive e-commerce.”

Azerion generates revenue in two ways – through advertising spend across its platform and through in-game purchases across its premium games (approx 22 per cent of 2020 reported revenue), with additional revenue coming from AAA game distribution. It has already developed more than 16,000 game titles with over 425 million monthly active users.

Since its inception, Azerion has had an active acquisitions strategy, having added 38 companies in the digital entertainment and technology sectors to the Azerion family. It layers these acquisitions on top of its existing business into a single, coherent platform. Some of its acquisitions include Improve Digital, HiMedia Germany, Zoomin, Collective Media Europe, Widespace, Sellbranch, Sulake, Smeet, Semilo, Adpulse, Adux, and the mobile division of Spil Games.