Israel’s ironSource goes public after $11bn Thoma Bravo SPAC merger

Israeli mobile adtech firm ironSource went public on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday after closing its merger with a blank-check company backed by U.S. private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

The public debut comes three months after the announcement of the merger with Thoma Bravo Advantage, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), and marks the listing of one of the most valuable private Israeli tech companies on U.S. exchanges.

The deal provides $2.15 billion in cash proceeds to ironSource, including private investment in public equity (PIPE) worth $1.3 billion. The company expects to deploy capital for acquisitions to expand its platform for app developers.

“The reason we’re doing it now, adding a lot of cash to the balance sheet and having this currency, partnering with Thoma Bravo, is to make sure we have all the ammunition, we need to be the market consolidator,” ironSource Co-founder and Chief Executive Tomer Bar Zeev told Reuters in New York.

Orlando Bravo, a veteran software investor who founded Thoma Bravo and who is now joining the ironSource board, said he planned more SPACs. “It’s a very powerful way of actually taking large and great technology companies public,” he said.

Founded in 2010, ironSource is building a platform for app developers to help them acquire users and display ads within apps. It has a particular focus on gaming apps.

The Israeli company reported $119.7 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2021, up 96% year on year. The company expects to generate revenue of $480 million to $490 million in fiscal year 2021, compared to $390 million the previous year.

The stock, which trades under the symbol “IS”, was up over 1% in Tuesday morning trading.

Source: Reuters