CentralNic goes vertical with another buyout of traffic sources

Firm purchases more of its traffic sources.

CentralNic (AIM: CNIC), a rollup of domain name and online advertising businesses, disclosed a modest buyout today.

The firm is paying $5.2 million for a collection of “revenue generating niche websites” from multiple sellers. It did not name the sites.

CentralNic stated it is by now monetizing part of the websites’ traffic, so it’s going vertical by acquiring some of the traffic sources to its ad networks. It has previously purchased some of the resellers on platforms it has purchased, as well as websites.

The firm stated the sites ought to generate $1.9 million in annual revenue, but this will translate into only $1.2 million of additional revenue since of the pass-through impact of by now monetizing some of the sites’ ad inventory.

It will be interesting to see what CentralNic does next year. Earlier this month, Ben Crawford stepped down as CEO of the firm following leading it since 2009. The firm suggested it won’t be as acquisitive in the future, at least not with big deals. Instead, “it is intended that in the future, the emphasis of cashflow generated will be a more balanced approach of returns to shareholders, deleverage and complementary bolt-on acquisitions.”