Acxiom's LiveRamp Completes Buyouts Of Arbor & Circulate

Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ:ACXM) owned LiveRamp recently announced the completion of its acquisition of Arbor (a marketplace for people-based data) and Circulate (a platform that enables app developers to make money out of their first-party data while maintaining privacy).

We note that LiveRamp had inked the deals just last month for $140 million.

Why this Move?

With these acquisitions, LiveRamp will now be able to scale up its omnichannel identity graph and widen its network. On the other hand, this will also enable the brands to look beyond Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) Custom Audiences and Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Customer Match for their people-based marketing requirements.

With mobile and online channels increasingly gaining popularity, having a wide reach is of utmost importance for marketers. Although the majority of the marketers use either Google or Facebook for their marketing requirements, many struggle to implement their marketing strategies on additional channels and platforms. LiveRamp will help such marketers with their people-based marketing targets.

With these acquisitions, LiveRamp now has more than 450 total publisher partnerships. Also, the acquisitions will help the company to have an international reach, integrate “mobile-first” technology and rake in the Arbor and Circulate teams for LiveRamp’s offering of IdentityLink for Publishers.

What’s in Store for LiveRamp?

With the acquisitions of Arbor and Circulate, LiveRamp will position itself better to lock horns with Facebook and Google in terms of people-based marketing. Additionally, an improvement of 20–30% is expected in mobile match rates and 10-20% in online match rates.

The Arbor and Circulate deals will not only help LiverRamp to further strengthen its leadership position in identity resolution but will also drive growth for the company and add value to Acxiom’s shareholders. By fiscal 2017, Arbor and Circulate are estimated to contribute revenues to the tune of $5 million.

Stock Performance Overview

Notably, Acxiom’s stock has outperformed the broader Zacks IT Services industry on a year-to-date basis. While the stock has returned 26.7%, the industry has returned only 1.5%.

The bullish performance of the stock could be primarily attributed to the successful execution of operational plans. With continued solid contributions from LiveRamp, the company is striving to improve the functionality of its products across all channels and devices.

Acxiom continues to reposition its portfolio by divesting assets that no longer fit its corporate strategy. Additionally, the company’s newly-introduced customized product range is successfully catering to the needs of its clients.

Zacks Rank and a Key Pick

At present, Acxiom carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A better-ranked stock in the broader technology space is MAM Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAMS) sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Notably, the consensus estimate for MAM Software’s current year has improved to $1.67 from $1.59 seven days ago.

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