Webselence, an Israeli company that has developed a data-powered platform for optimizing content, has been acquired by multinational Cyber firm Kape for $149.1 million in cash and shares. Let’s break down the deal:  $149.1 million - $116.6 million in cash and $32.5 million in new shares which will be issued to the shareholders of Webselenese.

Kape will finance $35 million for the company acquisition and about $85 million of the cash part will be financed by Kape through a bridging loan from the controlling shareholder, Israeli businessman Teddy Sagi.

Privacy & security focused content

Webselence, which has been bootstrapped for the past decade, has developed a data-driven platform for producing and optimizing content. The platform combines smart technologies with the company’s international network of content writers to produce high-quality content - mostly focused on security and privacy issues. Over the past year, the Israeli company reports registering 105 million readers on its range of websites.

Webselenese has achieved this with a collection of product comparison sites, which offer objective reviews, recommendations, and tips on a broad spectrum of security and privacy tools, which can be purchased online. The company has more than eight million unique visitors each month on its various sites, which are translated into 30 languages. This has made the company incredibly popular among online readers.

Kape will utilize the Webselence platform to help expand its customer base, by now being able to provide knowhow and technology to support relevant content creation for quality and targeted audiences, while also providing customers an extra edge in marketing in the privacy and security market.

Webselence will also assist in speeding up the rate of growth in the profits of Kape due to the swift growth of the company's activities over the past year: Webselenese saw revenue rise 91% last year to $64.5 million (from $33.8 million in 2019) and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) rose by 204% to $30.7 million (from $10.1 million in 2019). In addition, Webselenese has strong cash flow with 96% of EBITDA converted to cash.

Webselence was founded by Ran Greenberg and Ariel Hochstadt, two former economists turned entrepreneurs. The company’s 29 employees and army of freelancers will move to operate under the Kape umbrella. Before founding the company, Greenberg held VP of Business Development at Elron and Head of the Economics Department at Dun & Bradstreet, while Hochstadt was a senior manager at Google and responsible for global marketing of Gmail outside of the United States, and regional marketing manager of Google Israel for Greece, and South Africa.

Webselenese founders Ran Greenberg and Ariel Hochstadt said: "After working with Kape over the past three years, we are excited to join forces in order to create a company that can keep its promise to promote and to provide privacy and security on the web for consumers around the world."