31 Mar Leading European Influencer Agency Audiencly acquired by Flexion Mobile
Flexion Mobile Plc (Nasdaq: FLEXM), a leading games distribution company today announced the acquisition of Audiencly an industry leader in influencer marketing for the gaming industry.
This transaction is a perfect showcase for the ability of Technology Return to conduct successful M&A transactions for its clients in the influencer economy as well as the wider field of marketing services and advertising technologies:
It is an industry defining and transformative transaction in the influencer space and may well change the landscape of the creator economy.
It is a perfect match of technology and agency offerings, creating not only a larger entity but a better offer for both the buyer’s and seller’s clients.
It is carefully structured to provide a win-win setup where the seller’s founders and team are provided a strong incentive to stay and grow together with the buyer, while also realizing the value of the company and brand they built over the last years.
To learn more about our work, our approach to creating value and our deep experience in the creator economy, please feel free to reach out to our partner Jens Nolden.
Press Release:
Mobile Games Distribution Company Flexion Acquires Influencer Marketing Agency Audiencly
London/Hamburg, 30 March, 2022 – Flexion Mobile, the Android games distribution company today announces the acquisition of Audiencly, a leading influencer marketing agency for the gaming industry based in Dusseldorf, Germany. Flexion will purchase 100% of Audiencly for an upfront consideration of EUR 9.34m in cash and shares and an earn-out consideration. Audiencly’s founders Adrian Kotowski, CEO, and Michael Schmidt, CMO, will continue to manage the agency and oversee its further expansion as a part of the Flexion group.
Audiencly was founded in 2018 and has already built a network of 5,000+ influencers. The company has successfully run 1,000+ campaigns for more than 100 clients such as Tencent, Social Point and NetEase. Flexion, founded in 2007 offers an easy way to add revenue and players for games in a way that requires little upfront cost or effort from developers.
For mobile game developers traditional user acquisition has become complicated and inefficient. Influencer marketing is a far more authentic way to acquire loyal customers because it builds trust with players and as such drives a better ROI. Audiencly will combine its deep social media and influencer expertise with Flexion’s unique skills, experience and technology for developers to access the alternative app stores like Amazon, Huawei and Samsung. Together the two companies will create new revenue and user acquisition opportunities for developers in the mobile game space and beyond.
“This is a game-changing acquisition for Flexion and our first step into a wider market with a broader service for game developers,” says Jens Lauritzson, CEO of Flexion. “Adding influencer marketing will provide a huge opportunity as it creates a truly unique offering for game developers to increase their revenue and reach high paying users.”
Adrian Kotowski, CEO of Audiencly, adds: “User acquisition in gaming is becoming more sophisticated and requires a broader approach across multiple channels. Influencer marketing is the most authentic way to acquire loyal customers. Audiencly’s campaign and creator-centric approach for gaming brands has a strong impact on user acquisition processes and complements other customer acquisition channels. We have built Audiencly with focus on our gaming customers and their individual needs. The merger with Flexion allows us to integrate even deeper into the customer journey and optimise return on investment (ROI) for our joint gaming clients,” continued Adrian Kotowski, CEO of Audiencly.
“Together we will be able to take advantage of clear market synergies while providing a broader and richer service to top-grossing games developers around the world,” concludes Jens Lauritzson, Flexion’s CEO.
Technology Return acted as exclusive M&A advisor to the founders and sole owners of Audiencly in this transaction
About Audiencly:
Audiencly is a leader in influencer marketing, offering a highly influential network of social media content creators across the world. We specialize in developing, managing, and building successful social media campaigns for global and local brands. Our talented team of professionals is built around social media natives, campaign managers, and creative strategists who get world-class results by collaborating the most effective way with influencers passionate about your brand.
About Flexion:
Flexion offers a distribution service for free-to-play Android games. Using the service developers can distribute their games in multiple channels like Amazon, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and ONE Store. These are channels that the developers are struggling to reach and support. At the core of Flexion’s service is the patented enabling and enhancement software that converts developers’ existing Android games into specific game versions for the new stores without any work required by the developers. Flexion Mobile Plc is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market, Shortname: FLEXM.
About Technology Return:
Technology Return is a mid-market corporate finance, M&A and investment advisory boutique that advises entrepreneurs, investors and SMEs on M&A mandates exclusively in the digital and technology industries. The firm has completed notable transactions in artificial intelligence and machine learning, e-commerce, SaaS, platform industries, digital marketing and social media. For more information, please visit www.technology-return.com
Stock market announcement and interview
The deal underscores our expertise in realizing value
through relevant M&A experience and advice,
matching our clients with the right partner.