Ziff Davis has agreed to sell its Connectivity telecoms business, which includes Ookla with Speedtest and the Downdetector service, to Accenture for $1.2 billion in cash, with closing expected in the coming months.
Ziff Davis has agreed to sell its Connectivity telecoms business, which includes Ookla with Speedtest and the Downdetector service, to Accenture for $1.2 billion in cash, with closing expected in the coming months.
According to Reuters, along with Speedtest and Downdetector, Accenture will also acquire Ekahau and RootMetrics. Ziff Davis will continue to manage these assets until the deal closes. Ziff Davis shares rose more than 60% in early trading on the news, while Accenture shares were largely unchanged.
Ziff Davis said the sale was a result of its desire to focus on media brands and content businesses, including enthusiast sites like IGN and Mashable, as well as Everyday Health and iBuyNewCar. The company said it plans to use the proceeds from the deal for general corporate purposes and capital decisions within its debt arrangements.
The Connectivity division was formed through acquisitions: Ookla acquired Ziff Davis in 2014 for $15 million, and RootMetrics was added in 2016. Reuters notes that the business grew on the back of the rollout of 5G and increased demand for bandwidth during the pandemic. Connectivity generated $231 million in revenue last year, about 16% of Ziff Davis' total revenue.
Accenture says the Ookla portfolio will strengthen its network analytics services, specifically offering clients a «full-cycle network analytics experience» critical to AI-driven transformations.
The sale continues Ziff Davis' course of simplifying the business structure, which CEO Vivek Shah has been pursuing since 2017. Among the steps, Reuters mentions the spinoff of Consensus Cloud in 2021 and the sale of insurance broker Policygenius in 2022.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the Russian Federation banned the use of the American company Ookla Speedtest service for measuring the speed and quality of an Internet connection. In Russia, they believe it is dangerous and advise using their own alternatives.
