Until now, Entravision Communications Corp. has largely been known as a Hispanic-focused multimedia company with revenues fueled by strong digital growth, primarily across Spanish-speaking territories.
Not anymore, come July 1.
That’s the closing date of a business transaction that sees Entravision, traded on the NYSE, agree to purchase a digital marketing performance and branding company with operations across seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
That company is Singapore-based MediaDonuts, which has been in operation since 2010. It has a team of more than 80 employees located in Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and India.
Walter Ulloa, Entravision’s Chairman/CEO, calls the purchase “a natural fit with the overall digital and global transformation strategy of our business.”
He adds, “Entravision has always focused on providing advertising solutions in high growth markets and partnering with the strongest media and technology platforms in the world. We believe that the incorporation of MediaDonuts into the Entravision platform adds leadership, sales operations and digital offerings that will further propel our digital efforts.”
The company further explains that Entravision’s acquisition of MediaDonuts “is the next key step” in a plan to become a “leading marketing technology service provider in the world’s highest growth economies.”
That would certainly be the APAC region, which has more economic and political stability than Latin America.
Pieter-Jan de Kroon, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MediaDonuts, will continue as CEO. He said in a statement, “With our business positioned for success, we are excited to now have the opportunity to join the global digital platform Entravision has built over the past decade. I am confident in the many commercial, technological and product development synergies our business will achieve going forward as a combined entity.”
All MediaDonuts employees will remain with the company upon closing, Entravision says.
While its roots are in radio and TV, Entravision’s revenue is fueled today by digital.
“Expanding our digital business is core to our overall growth plans, and following our majority investment in Cisneros Interactive this past October, digital now represents over 65% of our revenue,” Juan Saldívar, Entravision’s Chief Digital, Strategy and Accountability Officer, says. “With a global digital platform now poised to reach and serve clients in 32 countries, we are confident the addition of MediaDonuts will further enhance our service offerings and help drive our continued global growth.”
Entravision shares were up 7.1% to $5.13 as of 2:50pm Eastern. It the highest price for EVC since August 2018.
