French advertising firm Criteo reportedly explores sale

After getting no results from acquisition talks in recent years, Paris-based online advertising company Criteo has now started a new sale process last week in an effort to attract other private equity firms and companies for a potential takeover, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The sources, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the New York-listed company is being advised by investment banking firm Evercore. 

While Criteo hasn’t shared any word on the rumours yet, sources added that no deal is certain for now.

In February 2021, Bloomberg News reported that the advertising company was being approached by investors for a potential acquisition deal. Reuters wrote that while what encouraged Criteo to start the new sale process remains unknown, it could be the difficulties its business is facing as a result of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework and Google’s plan to kill third-party cookies on its Chrome browser, something the company has been trying to to persuade its stakeholders that it can get through.

Following the news, Criteo’s shares increased by 8% to $33.65 yesterday, and its market cap rose to over $2 billion.

Meanwhile, the company, which completed the acquisition of ad tech firm IponWeb for $250M last August, shared its Q4 financial results earlier today, reporting a revenue of $564 million, down 14% year-over-year.