Affle 3i (NSE: AFFLE), the Indian mobile advertising company, said on November 1 it had agreed to acquire Perion Network (Nasdaq and TASE: PERI), an Israeli advertising technology company, for $11.70 a share in cash, an equity value of about $420 million. The price is a 34.5% premium to Perion's closing share price on October 30, the last trading day before the agreement was signed.
More than half of that price is Perion's own money. Perion held $228.3 million in cash, short-term bank deposits and marketable securities at September 30, and Affle said in its filing to India's stock exchanges that Perion has no financial debt. Net of that cash, Affle is paying about $192 million for the business, a SaasBuzz calculation shows.
What Affle is paying for
The 34.5% premium implies an October 30 close of about $8.70 a share. At $11.70, the $420 million equity value implies about 35.9 million shares, a count that includes unvested equity awards, which Affle said the deal covers. Perion's cash comes to about $6.36 of every $11.70 a share.
Perion's revenue for the 12 months to June 30, 2026, the latest period it has reported, was $436.2 million, calculated from its full-year 2025 results and second-quarter 2026 results. On that base the equity value is 0.96 times trailing revenue and the enterprise value 0.44 times.
Revenue makes the multiple look lower than it is, because Perion books revenue before paying for media. Traffic acquisition costs and media buy took 57% of revenue in the second quarter. In August, Perion forecast 2026 contribution ex-TAC, its non-GAAP measure of revenue after those costs, of $215 million to $225 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $51 million to $53 million.
Measure | $M | EV multiple |
|---|---|---|
Revenue, 12 months to June | 436.2 | 0.44x |
2026 ex-TAC forecast, midpoint | 220 | 0.87x |
2026 adj. EBITDA forecast, midpoint | 52 | 3.7x |
Source: Perion's results releases filed with the SEC, February 18 and August 10, 2026. Enterprise value is the $420 million equity value less $228.3 million of cash at September 30. SaasBuzz calculation.
That enterprise value subtracts cash and counts no debt, because Perion has none. Perion's June 30 balance sheet also carried $20.6 million of payment obligations from earlier acquisitions; adding them gives about $212 million.
From $743 million in revenue to a sale
Perion's revenue was $743.2 million in 2023, according to its annual report for 2025. It fell 33% to $498.3 million in 2024 and to $439.9 million in 2025, 41% below the 2023 level. CTech, Calcalist's English-language site, reported that Perion's market value was above $1 billion about three years ago.
The annual report links the fall in its search business to Microsoft. Perion's search advertising agreement with Microsoft accounted for 34% of its revenue in 2023 and 23% in 2024. In 2024 Microsoft changed advertising pricing in its search distribution marketplace and then excluded a number of publishers from it, changes that "resulted in a material decrease in our search advertising activity and results of operations," the report said. The agreement expired at the end of 2024.
Perion has since rebuilt around connected TV, digital out-of-home screens and retail media, sold through its Perion One platform. Its strategy "has long been built around diversifying away from the Open Web," Tal Jacobson, Perion's CEO, said in August. Revenue still fell 2% to $188.6 million in the first half of 2026, and the company reported a GAAP net loss of $6.8 million for the second quarter. By June 30 it had spent $166.8 million buying back 18.0 million of its own shares, and it used a further $26.0 million on buybacks in the third quarter.
We believe the proposed transaction offers compelling value and greater financial certainty for Perion's shareholders.Eyal Kaplan, chairman of Perion's board
Why Affle wants it
Affle describes its business as a "differentiated CPCU business model," short for cost per converted user. Anuj Khanna Sohum, Affle's chairperson, managing director and CEO, said combining its mobile marketing with Perion's "established presence across Retail Media, CTV, DOOH and other digital channels" was "an important step in strengthening our CPCU business across Developed Markets."
Affle's exchange filing goes further than Perion's release. "Post acquisition, we expect to update Perion's revenue recognition in view of the planned CPCU strategic transformation including review of business contracts," it said, which Affle expects to lead to "significantly improved bottom line performance." Affle said it expects the deal to add to its earnings per share by the end of the first year after closing, and that it will have no net debt immediately afterward, with a revenue run rate of more than $700 million in its fiscal 2028.
Affle plans to pay with committed bank financing and its own cash. Citibank is providing the debt, and the deal has no financing condition, Perion said. Perion is far larger than the purchase Affle disclosed in June, when an Affle subsidiary agreed to buy the AdColony advertising assets from Digital Turbine for a fixed $4.7 million.
What happens next
The agreement includes a 40-day go-shop period, ending at 11:59 p.m. Israel time on December 11, in which Perion and its adviser can solicit rival offers. The deal needs Perion shareholders' approval and the end of the US antitrust waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and is expected to close in early 2027. Perion's shares would then be delisted from Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Neither company has disclosed a termination fee. Affle's filing lists among the deal's risks circumstances "which would require a party to pay a termination fee," and the merger agreement had not been filed with the SEC as of 9:20 a.m. ET on November 1.
Perion will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Affle and keep its brand. For its advertisers and media partners, the open question is the contract review Affle described; Jacobson said Perion's focus remains on "delivering for the customers and partners who rely on us." Canaccord Genuity and Meitar Law Offices are advising Perion; LUMA Partners and Barnea Jaffa Lande are advising Affle.
