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May. 3, 2021 2:15 PM
Israeli firm Taboola revealed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing over the weekend that it and other companies in the digital advertising industry are under investigation for antitrust violations by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The criminal investigations involves hiring practices in the industry, which focuses on the recommendations the company makes for other online stories to read.
Taboola only found out about the investigation last week, a few months after the decision on the SPAC merger was made.
A SPAC is a listed shell company without operations that raises money from investors with the goal of merging with a private company and taking it public.
Taboola reports strong Q1 data ahead of SPAC merger
Taboola s revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was in the range of $300 million to $303 million, beating the prior projection of $286 million.
Israeli content recommendation company Taboola today announced strong preliminary results for the first quarter of 2021 ahead of its SPAC merger with ION Acquisition Corp. 1 (NYSE: IACA), (led by Jonathan Kolber and Gilad Shani), which will see it list on Wall Street, at a company valuation of $2.6 billion.
Taboola s revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was in the range of $300 million to $303 million, beating the prior projection of $286 million, and 8% higher than the $279 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2020. Gross profit was in the range of $87 million to $90 million, higher than the prior projection of $78 million.
After Taboola merger, SPAC ION to raise $253m on NYSE
The ION Acquisition 2 fund, led by Jonathan Kolber and Gilad Shani, will invest the funds by merging with a second tech company.
Israeli SPAC (blank check company) ION Acquisition Corp. has filed to raise $253 million on the NYSE for the ION Acquisition 2 fund. This follows hard on the heels of the news earlier this week that the ION Acquisition 1 fund, which raised $259 million last October, is merging with Israeli company Taboola, at a valuation of $2.6 billion for the media content recommendation and discovery platform.
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A SPAC is a special purpose acquisition company, which raises capital and is given a blank check by investors to subsequently merge into an existing company. ION plans to merge with another tech company. The underwriters for the ION Acquisition Fund 2 offering are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and AmeriVest Securities.
The Israeli media content company is merging with ION, an Israeli SPAC, which raised $260 million last year on Wall Street to merge with a tech company.