Perion was founded in 1999 by cousins Yaron and Ofer Adler.[4][5] Soon after its founding, they raised $3.3 million in funding from private and institutional investors. The company went public on Nasdaq in January 2006 and was listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2007.[4][6]
Perion was under the management of its original founders until August 2010, when Josef Mandelbaum was appointed CEO.[7]
Founded under the name IncrediMail, in November 2011, the company rebranded to Perion, deriving its name from the Hebrew word for productivity.[8]
2014-2017
In July 2014, Perion collaborated with CYREN, a provider of cloud-based security services, to enhance Perion's security and browsing applications.[9]
In August 2014, Perion extended its agreement with Microsoft's Bing search service, powering search in Perion products for desktop and mobile platforms.[10]
In September 2016, Josef Mandelbaum stepped down as CEO of Perion.[11][12] During his tenure, Perion grew from a single-product company with an annual revenue of $29 million to over $300 million.[11]
In April 2017, Doron Gerstel assumed the role of CEO.[13] Under his leadership, Perion took initiatives to minimize the company's debt and enhance its "operational efficiency".[14] This period also saw the company broaden its reach into the digital television advertising sector.[15]
2018-2020
In October 2018, Perion's platform, MakeMeReach, received Google certification.[16]
In November 2020, CodeFuel, Perion's Search Technology division, entered into a four-year partnership with Microsoft Advertising.[17]
2021-2022
In September 2021, MakeMeReach, a subsidiary of Perion, formed a partnership with Pinterest, allowing ad purchasing and data integration from major social platforms and Google.[18]
In February 2022, Perion received the Microsoft Supply Partner of the Year Advertising Award.[19]
In August 2022, Perion received the Stevie Award in the artificial intelligence category.[20]
In September 2022, Perion disclosed the results of a digital advertising campaign for Mercedes-Benz USA, noting a successful implementation of the cookieless strategy.[21]
2023-2024
In February 2023, it was announced that Doron Gerstel would be stepping down as the CEO of the company and would be succeeded by Tal Jacobson, effective from 1 August 2023.[22]
In June 2024, Perion announced significant layoffs as part of a cost-cutting initiative. The decision came after Microsoft's further actions to completely remove several advertisers from its Bing network, which severely harmed Perion's revenues. As a result, Perion decided to eliminate 35 jobs, primarily within its search division in Israel. This reduction represented 15% of the company's Israeli workforce, which numbered 230 employees out of a total of 650 globally.[23]
The impact of Microsoft's decisions was substantial, with Perion's revenue from its collaboration with Microsoft projected to fall to less than 5% of its total revenue in the latter half of 2024. Previously, revenue from Bing had formed a substantial part of Perion's income. For the second quarter of 2024, Perion's revenues were anticipated to be between $106 million and $108 million, with annual revenues expected to decrease to approximately half a billion dollars.[23]
Mergers and acquisitions
In August 2011, Perion acquired the Redmond-based Smilebox for $25 million.[24] Smilebox was an application designed for creating slideshows, e-cards, invitations, and other digital photo albums.[25][26]
In November 2012, Perion acquired Israel-based SweetPacks (or SweetIM), for approximately $41 million.[27][28] SweetPacks specialized in producing a range of downloadable content for daily use.[29]
In January 2014, Perion took over Conduit's ClientConnect business in an all-stock transaction valued at $660 million.[30][31][32] Later, in June 2014, Perion acquired San Francisco-based Grow Mobile as it repositioned itself to emphasize business-to-business services.[33][34][35] After the acquisition, Grow Mobile was integrated into Perion Lightspeed, a platform that serves the advertising requirements of mobile app developers.[36]
In February 2015, Perion acquired MakeMeReach, a platform that helped app developers with social media advertising, for $15 million.[37][38] Later, in December 2015, Perion acquired the digital advertising firm, Undertone, for $180 million.[39][40]
In 2019, Perion acquired Septa Communications, a Kyiv-based AI company that provided ad performance analytics service, for $3.5 million.[41][42]
By January 2020, Perion acquired Content IQ, a New York-based startup that focused on optimizing digital advertising through cookie-less tracking and analytics.[43] Later, in July 2020, Perion acquired assets from a digital publisher-centric ad-tech firm named Pub Ocean and subsequently integrated them into Content IQ.[44]
In 2021, Perion acquired a Tel Aviv-based video monetization platform, Vidazoo, for $93.5 million.[45][46]
Services
Perion Network Ltd. provides digital advertising technology services for advertisers and publishers across various channels and platforms. Their key offerings include:
Publisher Platform
Perion's Wildfire Publisher Platform sources web traffic from multiple platforms including Facebook, Taboola, and Yahoo.[47] The company also collaborates with Microsoft Bing on search monetization services.[48]
High Impact Advertising
Perion offers a tool called High Impact Advertising (HIA) that utilizes immersive media formats to enhance advertising experiences.[49]
Social Media Advertising
In response to the growth of social media advertising, Perion developed the Actionable Performance Monitoring (APM) platform. This tool consolidates data from multiple social platforms to assist in campaign management.[50] The APM platform is compatible with social networks such as Facebook and TikTok.[50]
