CentralNic to acquire monetization firm Codewise for $36 million

CentralNic bulks up its monetization business.

Domain name rollup CentralNic (London AIM: CNIC) disclosed that it is acquiring Codewise, which is a collection of advertising and domain monetization firms, for $36 million.

The buyout adds to the firm’s domain monetization arm that was created with the buyout of Team Internet.

Codewise operates ZeroPark and Voluum. The firm was founded by an ex-employee of Elephant Traffic, a zero-click firm that later sold its client base to Team Internet.

I covered ZeroPark when it launched in 2013. Right now, the firm offers three ad formats: domain redirects (zero-click), push notifications, and popups.

Voluum is an ad campaign management system.

Both of the firms are geared to affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketers, who get paid commissions for referring clients, can buy traffic on ZeroPark. They then manage ad campaigns (counting campaigns from other ad networks) on Voluum.

Together, the businesses count 6,000 clients.

The buyout ought to help CentralNic diversify its monetization business, which is heavily reliant on Google. Google accounted for 92% of the firm’s monetization revenue in the first half of this year.

Codewise generated $60.3 million in revenue in the 12 months through June 30, and an adjusted EBITDA of $7.4 million. CentralNic believes it can cut costs by at least $1 million by combining it with its other monetization services.

The buyout will significantly grow CentralNic’s headcount. It plans to add 140 people from Codewise.

CentralNic will pay for the buyout by issuing £30 million of fresh shares.