Headquartered in Cologne, Ligatus is a leading European content recommendation company with other offices in Germany as well as France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Netherlands.
Israeli content recommendation company Outbrain announced today that it has entered an agreement to acquire Ligatus, a fully owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann group company Gruner + Jahr, in a stock deal. No other financial details were disclosed.
Headquartered in Cologne, Ligatus is a leading European content recommendation company with other offices in Germany as well as France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Netherlands. Ligatus' solutions bring advertisers and publishers together through high-impact, non-intrusive native ad placements, leveraging a mobile-first native ad solution for marketers to build awareness and engagement with the right audiences. Delivering more than 37 billion ad impressions per month, Ligatus provides tailored and contextual advertising alongside publisher content in a multi-device format while guaranteeing brand safety.
With the addition of the Ligatus premium publisher network, Outbrain will expand and strengthen its position in Europe with over 1,400 premium publishers, including STERN, RTL and Femme Actuelle.
Outbrain co-CEO David Kostman said, "The acquisition of Ligatus is part of our market consolidation strategy and will allow us to expand our native offering to marketers and strengthen the relationship with our publisher partners. By combining the sophisticated native advertising offering of Ligatus with Outbrain's strong targeting technology and reach, the benefit for marketers, publishers and users will be a trustworthy feed of discovery that is powered with a strong underlying, non-interruptive advertising experience."
He added, "This transaction will grow Outbrain's footprint in key new European markets and open a premium group of Gruner and Jahr and Bertelsmann publishers to our advertisers."
Ligatus CEO Klaus Ludemann said, "We are excited to join ranks with Outbrain in order to create a true native advertising powerhouse. This combination will create a win-win for our publishers and advertising partners by leveraging the combined strengths of our teams."
The acquisition is subject to certain regulatory and other approvals and is expected to close by the second quarter of 2019.