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Affiliate Monitor A dead parrot
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igbaffiliate . com in particular , and the lack of new states coming on stream . “ It looks for all the world like they have ignored all the new information coming in from North America ,” says one affiliate industry source .
Chart 2 : Catena Media one-year share price performance
A SIGNIFICANT OTHER
Notably , despite the corporate actions undertaken by Catena – or perhaps because of them – the share price has stubbornly resisted anything which might help slow or reverse its long-term decline .
But this decline also shows some recent blips that perhaps point to what the market expects will happen to Catena Media even as the company appoints a new chief executive . That expectation is that Catena Media will be sold .
A look at the more recent share price action shows why this might be a fair assumption . When rival Better Collective announced in early March ahead of its own earnings that it had raised DKK1bn ( or around € 134m ) from investors via the sale of new shares to fund potential acquisitions , the market sent Catena ’ s share soaring by 25 % at one point , apparently in the hope that this meant Better Collective would come knocking on Catena ’ s door .
It is not an outlandish suggestion . After all , BC still owns a 9 % stake in its erstwhile market leader rival . Yet , with the Danish mega-affiliate now apparently looking into the wider sports media field for further
Source : Google Finance
expansion ( see later in this report ), the likelihood that it will consider a deal for Catena looks , at least for now , unlikely .
The second blip came with the news from XLMedia which saw Catena rise nearly 10 % on the day after the news of its European assets ’ sale . Granted , this is nothing compared to the almost 100 % rise in the XLMedia share price on the announcement of its own divestment news .
“ Recent blips in Catena ’ s longterm share price decline suggest it still has an M & A target pinned to its back ”
But it still points to some believing that Catena Media is simply a company with an M & A target pinned to its back .
The potential is likely there for any affiliate organisation that is lacking a North American presence – or wishes to bolster a currently sub-scale position – to buy its way to prominence by buying either of XLMedia or Catena Media . Or indeed both .
But the danger is that with the US market being far trickier now than it has ever been , and with competition so tight , the current market leaders likely believe they can outcompete what have become , by their own actions , somewhat subscale operators .
One way or another , whether either company has a long-term future as an independent entity is very much open to doubt .
iGB Affiliate Monitor April 2024