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Stockholm-listed industry affiliate network Catena Media has confirmed that it will buy distressed football analysis and news portal Squawka and its related assets.
Last November, Squawka a popular football portal with a reported 4 million unique monthly users revealed that it was in financial difficulties, placing itself into administration.
Squawka’s website and social media assets have not been updated since October, with company management stating that discussions were taking place with interested parties seeking to raise operational funds to continue its business.
Yesterday, Catena leadership published a statement detailing that it had agreed to acquire Squawka for a ‘one-time upfront payment’ of £1 million.
Updating investors, Catena detailed that the Squawka acquisition would significantly boost the firm’s social media dynamics and capabilities, with its portfolio gaining a football portal with 850,000 followers on Twitter and a Facebook group of 750,000 users.
Utilising its proven M&A model, Catena governance will now move to revamp Squawka digital assets, making the portal more commercially viable for advertising and industry partners.
In its market note, Catena expects to generate a further €2 million in annual sales from Squawka with a proposed target 60% margin.
Henrik Persson Ekdahl, Acting CEO, Catena Media commented on the deal “We see the potential for Squawka as a high-volume traffic site with a global audience, to which we look forward to implementing an affiliation business model. The company has invested in automatic data feeds for their user-friendly graphical interfaces, which is something we aim to integrate into other Catena Media products. Squawka will sit alongside our existing brands, increasing our coverage in the football vertical while entering the upcoming sports year”
