Affle is buying Israel's Perion for about $420 million. Half the price is Perion's own cash

Gurugram based Affle 3i has agreed to buy Perion Network, the Tel Aviv adtech company listed on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, in an all cash deal that values Perion's equity at about $420 million. Affle disclosed the agreement to the Indian stock exchanges on November 1, and Perion announced it the same day. Perion shareholders will receive $11.70 a share, which Perion says is a 34.5 percent premium to its closing price on October 30, the last trading day before the agreement was signed.

For an Indian listed technology company, buying a dual listed foreign company outright is rare. The deal also says a lot about where online advertising money is moving: away from the phone screen alone and toward television sets, digital billboards and shop websites, where brands now want to prove that an ad led to a sale.

What Affle is buying

Perion sells software that lets advertisers buy and run campaigns across retail media (ads on shopping sites and apps), connected TV (streaming on internet linked television sets) and digital out of home, known as DOOH, which covers screens in public places. Affle's filing says Perion completed three acquisitions over the last three years and folded these businesses into a single platform called Perion One. Perion's chief executive Tal Jacobson also points to Outmax, an AI agent the company built to tune campaign performance across channels.

Affle's own business sits further down what marketers call the funnel. It is known for mobile advertising where it is paid per converted user, a model it calls CPCU, or cost per converted user. In plain terms, Affle earns when an ad leads to an action such as an app install or a purchase, rather than for showing the ad. Its filing describes its strength as performance led consumer conversions in emerging markets, and Perion's as upper funnel channels in developed markets such as North America.

Affle's chairperson, managing director and CEO Anuj Khanna Sohum said in the company's release that the combination would bring Affle's mobile marketing together with Perion's presence across retail media, CTV, DOOH and other channels, and that the company sees opportunities in e-commerce, retail and healthcare. Affle says it wants to sell what it calls CTV to Cart and DOOH to Cart campaigns, tying an ad seen on a television or a billboard to a later purchase.

How the deal is structured

The purchase is being made by Affle 3iL Ltd, an Israel based step down subsidiary of the Indian parent, through a reverse triangular merger: a subsidiary of Affle merges into Perion, and Perion survives as a wholly owned Affle company. Perion will keep its brand, and its shares will be delisted from Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange once the deal closes.

Affle says it will pay with a mix of committed bank financing and its own cash. Citibank is providing the debt financing, and Perion's announcement says the deal does not depend on that financing. LUMA Partners is Affle's financial adviser and Barnea Jaffa Lande its legal adviser. Both companies say the deal is expected to close in early 2027, subject to Perion shareholder approval, US antitrust clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and other conditions.

A cheaper price than it looks

The headline number hides an important detail. Perion had no financial debt and held $228.3 million in cash, short term deposits and marketable securities on September 30, 2026, according to its own announcement. That means a little over half of the $420 million equity value is covered by cash already sitting on Perion's balance sheet. Affle says it expects to be net debt free immediately after the acquisition.

Israel's Calcalist described the price as a stark measure of Perion's decline, noting that the company had a market value above $1 billion just three years ago. It traces the fall to 2024, when Microsoft changed how it paid search distribution partners such as Perion. In 2023, Calcalist reported, search made up 46 percent of Perion's revenue, and Microsoft accounted for 85 percent of that segment. Storyboard18, citing Perion's reported financials, put revenue at $743.2 million in 2023, $498.3 million in 2024 and $439.9 million in 2025, with profit after tax falling from $115 million in 2023 to a loss of $7.9 million in 2025.

What Affle promises investors

Affle says the combined business will have a revenue run rate of more than $700 million for its financial year 2028. It also says it plans to change how Perion recognises revenue as it moves Perion's contracts toward the CPCU model, and to review those contracts, which it expects to improve profits quickly. On that basis, Affle expects the deal to add to its earnings per share by the end of the first year after closing.

Affle's release says the company has delivered more than 20 percent annual organic growth and more than 20 percent EBITDA consistently, and that it has a record of buying businesses and moving them onto its own platform. Perion is the biggest test of that playbook so far, since it brings a large North American customer base built on a different way of charging advertisers.

What could still change

The agreement includes a 40 day go shop period, ending at 11:59 pm Israel time on December 11, 2026, during which Perion and its adviser can actively look for a better offer. If a rival bidder appears, the price or the buyer could change. Perion shareholders still have to vote, and US antitrust review has to run its course.

The harder question comes after closing. Switching Perion's advertisers from familiar pricing to paying per converted user is a big change for customers in mature markets, and Affle's earnings promise depends on it working. Until then, the deal stands as one of the clearest signs yet of an Indian adtech company using its balance sheet to buy scale in the US market rather than build it from scratch.