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€ 21.5m
Catena said it expected revenues for the last three months of the year from North America to hit € 21.5m , a 31 % year-on-year increase
As well as the finance affiliate arm of Catena , which it said in December was “ held for sale ” but has clearly yet to find a buyer , it very much means that the future of the entire European business is now very much in doubt , as is the future of Catena itself .
PULLED APART AT THE SEAMS
Sources point out that for all the obvious success Catena enjoyed in finding a target for its M & A drive – and funding the spending spree – it never truly got down to the business of properly integrating the businesses .
“ If you have a process for what you want to do with the site and have a team that is prepared then you will have an advantage ,” says one affiliate industry insider . “ But one of the weakest things with Catena is they never integrated , outside of the US .”
“ When they bought all those European assets , we never saw any real integration ,” another source adds . “ Operators were receiving six individual invoices from Catena Media entities . And as it got bigger , it just got more painful . And that is the same with tech stacks .”
By this reckoning , Catena Media never truly exploited one of the central reasons for any M & A : the possibility of extracting cost synergies by taking out layers
March 2023