Clickbait provider Outbrain files for IPO

Initial public offering comes on heels of a failed merger

Outbrain Inc., a major clickbait provider, detailed plans for an initial public offering Tuesday, after filing confidentially in April.

The company that in 2020 "provided personalized content feeds and ads to approximately 1 billion monthly unique users," had filed for a potential IPO in 2014.

In 2019, it agreed to be sold to Taboola Ltd., but that transaction was called off in 2020. In January, Taboola said it would merge with ION Acquisition Corp. 1, in a deal with an implied valuation of $2.6 billion.

Outbrain, which is profitable, had revenue of $767 million last year.

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Viola Ventures owns a 14% stake, while Lightspeed Ventures holds 13.9%. Outbrain has applied for a Nasdaq Global Select Market listing under symbol "OB."

In its filing, Outbrain said its content-recommendation platform is "fueled by over 1 billion data events gathered each minute." The company generated over 66% of its revenue on mobile platforms in 2020.