Icecat Finalizes Acquisition of Cedemo's French E-commerce Data Business Despite Corona Crisis

AMSTERDAM - April 1, 2020 - PRLog -- Icecat finalized the acquisition of Cedemo's toys and entertainment product content business for the e-commerce market, despite the covid-19 induced crisis and lockdowns in France, Monaco and partially in The Netherlands. The covid-19 crisis increases some of the perceived risks of the take-over as some specialist toys and video games retail clients had to close their doors temporarily, although their e-commerce activities in most cases continue. The structure of the deal is changed as a consequence by adding an earn-out component to cover for possible crisis fall-out.

The transferred toys and entertainment data business, concentrated in Cedemo B.V., encompasses, besides toys data, product data for video games, games, licensed products, and games accessories. Cedemo is mainly focused on the French market working for leading retailers such as Cdiscount, Amazon, JouéClub, Micromania/GameStop, E.Leclerc and Cultura, with content from global brands including LEGO, Epoch d'Enfance, Mattel, Playmobil, EA and Ubisoft. The acquisition is expected to add 10% to the revenue growth of Icecat on an annualized basis, and there is no direct effect on profitability expected.

"The current covid-19 crisis is a challenge for traditional retailers but gives at the same time a boost to e-commerce activities. Merging Icecat's and Cedemo's toys and entertainment data activities results in a combination that is market leader in this segment.", says Icecat CEO Martijn Hoogeveen.

"Based on feedback of clients, they appreciate the access to a global network and the broader product content database that the new combination will provide for," according to Keith Jones, CEO and co-founder of Cedemo.

The Cedemo team is the new Icecat team in Monaco, providing support for the French market and the toys and video games specialisms. In the coming months, the Icecat and Cedemo teams will work hard on seamlessly integrating the Cedemo service within the Icecat ecosystem.

At the transaction date, 90,257 new ordinary shares of Icecat are issued to Cedemo S.A.M., around 1% of the total share capital. Further, an initial cash amount of 0.9 million is paid by Icecat. After one year, mainly based on performance an additional amount and additional new shares (up to 21,600) are transferred to Cedemo S.A.M. All amounts are paid from Icecat's positive cashflow and leaves Icecat's healthy cash position undented which is important at the start of any crisis.

After twelve months the additional share transaction and other financial details will be communicated in so far material for Icecat investors.

See http://www.iceclog.com/