What happened
Shares of advertising platform Criteo (CRTO 0.04%) were up on Wednesday, after the French company released financial results for the second quarter of 2022. The company also informed investors that it completed a previously announced acquisition, but on dramatically different terms. As of 3 p.m. ET, Criteo stock was up 10%.
So what
It's been a bad year for adtech stocks. This industry can be loosely tracked with an exchange-traded fund (ETF) like SmartETFs Advertising & Marketing Technology ETF. This ETF is down 45% year to date and Criteo stock has trended downward on a nearly identical path. In short, with Apple and Alphabet's Google making things harder for digital ad companies, investors expected Criteo to perform poorly.
Criteo's Q2 revenue according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) was down 10% year over year. However, excluding traffic acquisition costs (a normal thing for adtech companies to exclude) it was only down 3%. And revenue was actual up 7% in constant currency, compensating for the strength of the U.S. dollar. Moreover, the company's net income increased to $18 million from $15 million last year -- resilient results despite the challenging operating environment.
Now what
On Aug. 1, Criteo acquired fellow ad company IPONWEB. The company was originally going to acquire it for $380 million. However, with valuations down, it bought it for just $250 million, or about 2.5 times IPONWEB's sales in 2021. This acquisition is expected to be accretive to Criteo's revenue, and it's part of why management is guiding for full-year adjusted revenue growth of 11% to 14% in constant currency.
One thing for Criteo shareholders to be excited about is ongoing cross-selling opportunities. According to management, just 28% of customers used more than one Criteo product last year. Now, that's up to 33%. If this trend can continue, I expect Criteo's business results to continue to impress.
