CHICAGO: Cision has acquired Montréal-based Cedrom-SNi, the marketing services vendor said on Wednesday.
The addition of the digital media monitoring platform to Cision’s suite of services will give its customer base "enhanced access to thousands of sources of media content," Cision said in a statement. In turn, Cedrom customers will be able to tap into Cision’s other products. The deal will also extend Cision’s reach in Canada and France.
Cision CEO Kevin Akeroyd said this latest acquisition adds more "content arrows to the quiver" by giving its clientele access to exclusive and proprietary sources of content. He added that the company will disclose within the month which publishers and content will remain proprietary and which will be "opened up."
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Cedrom has more than 100 employees in Montreal, Québec City, Ottawa, Toronto, and Paris. Its respective Canadian and European subsidiaries, Eureka.cc and Europresse.com, offer media monitoring and analytics services.
Cedrom’s client base includes corporations, government agencies, media, ad, and PR agencies.
One of Cision’s main competitors, Meltwater, acquired Canada-based Infomart this summer.
Cision recorded $159.7 million in third-quarter revenue, a 5.9% increase over the prior year. Operating income in Q3 was $13.9 million, up from a loss of $7.1 million in the prior year. Cision also reported a net loss of $46.4 million in the period. CEO Kevin Akeroyd called it a "slight underperformance."
The Cedrom-SNi buy is Cision’s ninth acquisition since its 2014 deal with GTCR.
"[Integration] is probably one of the most important aspects," Ackeroyd said. "It’s why we need to do some enhancements on the leadership team, because if you just buy the pieces, you don’t create any value for the customer. You have to integrate them well."
This story was updated on December 21 with comment from Akeroyd.
