Inuvo Surges On M&A Announcement
Shares of Inuvo, Inc. (NASDAQ: INUV), a provider of artificial intelligence technology for brands and agencies, soared Monday after the company announced that it's being acquired.
What Happened
Inuvo said in a press release it reached an agreement to sell itself to the privately held e-commerce technology company ConversionPoint Technologies.
The cash and stock transaction values the company at around $2.22 per share. As part of the agreement, Inuvo shareholders will receive 45 cents per share in cash and $1.77 per share in future ConversionPoint stock, as the company intends to file to list on the Nasdaq Toronto exchanges.
Inuvo's AI-driven consumer behavior technology is cited as reason for the acquisition.
The technology "leverages machine learning to mirror the way the human brain instantly associates ideas, emotions, places, people and objects," according to the company.
Why It's Important
"Online retailers and brands have been searching for end-to-end, data-driven technology to help provide accurate information they can use to acquire customers," ConversionPoint CEO Robert Tallack said in the press release.
"We believe that together our end-to-end, AI-powered e-commerce platform can offer those capabilities to the online retail channel and the direct channel that the market has been actively searching for."
What's Next
Under the deal, Inuvo shareholders will own around 29 percent of the newly created holding company, and Inuvo will become a wholly owned subsidiary.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019 and remains contingent on ConversionPoint raising at least $36 million of gross proceeds from the issuance of new equity and/or debt, a portion of which would fund the transaction.
The micro-cap stock was up more than 250 percent to $1.44 at time of publication.
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