CentralNic purchases arbitrage firm for up to $19 million

Deal will cut out the middleman for some of CentralNic’s traffic.

CentralNic disclosed today that it is acquiring Israeli firm M.A Aporia Ltd. for as much as $19 million, with $11.2 million upfront and up to $7.8 million in earnouts.

In a release, CentralNic describes Aporia as “a technology firm operating in the fields of social media and native advertising.”

Based on the LinkedIn profiles of some of its employees, it looks like the firm does search arbitrage. This is when you buy traffic from one source and send it to pay-per-click landers or other monetization channels.

The firm’s LinkedIn page suggests it is connected to the gaming industry and has 50 clients, but CentralNic states the firm is “an exclusive supplier to CentralNic,” and the deal will only increase profits, not revenue. This suggests the firm is sending all of its traffic to CentralNic to monetize.

CentralNic describes the buyout as part of a “vertical integration strategy, providing the Group’s Online Marketing segment with more direct access to high quality traffic to monetise.”

Last year, Aporia generated $35 million revenue and $2 million EBITDA.