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Veritone to Buy Wazee Digital for $15 Million

Veritone said Aug. 13 that it signed an agreement to buy Wazee Digital, a provider of cloud-native video management and licensing services that enable rights holders to monetize and enrich their content, for $15 million, including $7.5 million in cash and $7.5 million in Veritone common stock.

Separately, Veritone said its Veritone One subsidiary signed an agreement to purchase Binghamton, N.Y.-based podcast agency Performance Bridge Media (PBM) for $6 million, plus a contingent earn-out of up to $5 million based on PBM’s revenue for calendar year 2018, with such consideration being payable mainly in Veritone common stock. That acquisition will expand Veritone’s market share to more than 25% of all U.S.-based podcast ad revenue, it said.

They’re the first acquisitions announced by Veritone in 2018. The company said in late 2017 that it bought the advanced data analytics software and related intellectual property assets of Atigeo Corporation.

“We will continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities and invest in organizations that we feel can help us further accelerate our business objectives,” Mike Morper, Veritone VP of product marketing, told the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA).

Veritone plans to offer Wazee Digital applications and services to media and entertainment (M&E) companies, as well as government markets, providing customers with the ability to “drive expanded revenue opportunities from their existing video, still images and audio assets,” Veritone said in a news release. The companies had been collaborating as technology partners since 2017, with the first integration of the companies’ products completed in April, it noted.

Wazee Digital, based in Denver, had revenue of more than $19 million in 2017, Veritone said. The purchase was subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by Aug. 31, it said.

“Wazee Digital’s Denver office will continue to operate as Veritone’s Digital Asset Management and Content Licensing center of excellence,” Morper said, adding: “From this location, we will continue to develop, market and sell all products and services.” No job cuts are planned, he told us, saying: “Veritone is committed to the continued growth of Wazee Digital and we’re thrilled to have new team members that will supplement our existing team’s expertise in the M&E market.”

The Wazee Digital management team “will add leadership and expertise by integrating into Veritone’s existing team,” Veritone said in its announcement, adding it “will apply its go-to-market capabilities and growing sales channels to cross-sell aiWARE to existing Wazee Digital customers and Wazee Digital’s products and services to Veritone customers and channels.” Veritone will also market the combined offering “into other verticals where the collection, management and subsequent retrieval of key video, still images and audio assets are essential,” it said.

“Wazee Digital has a dynamic content licensing and asset management business, one of the most comprehensive operational platforms for monetization of digital media assets with a fantastic roster of blue-chip customers,” Chad Steelberg, Veritone CEO and founder, said in the announcement. He added: “As a result of the recent integration between Wazee Digital’s asset management platform” and aiWARE, Veritone’s operating system for artificial intelligence (AI), “joint customers can fully index, categorize, and package content on Wazee Digital’s platform, resulting in unparalleled additional revenue opportunities.”

The purchase of PBM, meanwhile, will make Veritone One “one of the largest entities to offer comprehensive, podcast and radio solutions, helping clients efficiently acquire new business at scale while building their brands,” Veritone said in its separate announcement, noting PBM had 2017 net revenue of $3.7 million.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close “in the next several days,” it said.

PBM has “historic knowledge of podcast campaign performance dating back to 2002,” and “possesses unique insight into one of the fastest growing segments of the estimated” $221 billion U.S. advertising market, Veritone said, adding: “This insight will be leveraged by Veritone and supplemented with the company’s aiWARE artificial intelligence platform, greatly enhancing the combined agency’s highly specific ad tracking and podcast targeting capabilities for brands.”

PBM will remain in Binghamton and “continue to operate there with no planned changes,” Morper told MESA.