MaxBounty has been acquired by Hamburg-based mrge in a deal that closed earlier this month, the companies announced this week. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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An Ottawa company that helps customers boost their internet marketing campaigns is now part of a European organization.
MaxBounty has been acquired by Hamburg-based mrge in a deal that closed earlier this month, the companies announced this week. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The two-decade-old Ottawa firm has 30 employees across the country, including about 18 in the National Capital Region. Its proprietary software tracks traffic on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram to discover patterns aimed at helping advertisers better target marketing campaigns for specific consumer groups.
MaxBounty focuses on customers in sectors such as market research, finance and e-commerce. It works with hundreds of advertisers and has a network of 16,000 publishers that drive traffic to marketing campaigns around the world.
The company will remain a standalone entity under the mrge umbrella and continue to be based in Ottawa. CEO Matt McEvoy and the rest of the MaxBounty management team will stay in their current roles.
McEvoy, who joined the company in 2006, noted that the firm does about 80 per cent of its business in the United States. He said joining forces with mrge, which has about 100 employees in Germany and another 25 in Montreal, will give MaxBounty access to additional services as well as new customers and geographic markets across the Atlantic.
The European firm works with more than 5,500 publishers and 55,000 advertisers in 160 countries.
“It gives us more diversity,” McEvoy explained in an interview with Techopia on Wednesday. “It allows us to be a little bit stronger, offer advertisers a little bit more than we maybe did in the past.”
It’s another stage in the ongoing evolution of MaxBounty, which was launched by brothers Steven and J.P. Sauve in 2004. They controlled the company until 2017, when they sold it to a family investment office.
McEvoy said MaxBounty had fielded other offers over the years but was not actively searching for a new buyer.
That changed when management was introduced to mrge’s team last year through mutual acquaintances at Ottawa-based M&A advisory group Sampford Advisors.
“We were really aligned on a lot of our views for the industry itself and what mrge was doing,” McEvoy said. “From there, the conversions got a little bit deeper, and we’re here now. Right off the bat, I thought it was the right fit.”
Mrge CEO Dave Reed said the acquisition will expand his firm’s reach in key customer segments such as finance and e-commerce.
“We are very excited to integrate these assets into our portfolio and to welcome the MaxBounty team to the mrge family,” he said.
