PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
PlanetArt, a subsidiary of the Claranova group (Paris:CLA), is pleased to announce the acquisition of the assets of Personal Creations, the personalized gifts business of the U.S. group, FTD Companies, Inc.
PlanetArt paid for Personal Creations’ assets $18.1 million in cash, plus certain additional payments, as part of FTD’s court-supervised restructuring.
Personal Creations is a leader in the online retail of personalized products. Its 2018 revenue of US$126.3 million was generated entirely in the United States.
After several profitable years, Personal Creations reported slightly negative EBITDA1 in 2018. The Group expects Personal Creations to return to positive EBITDA from its first year with PlanetArt, potentially with lower revenue figures.
PlanetArt is the world leader in mobile printing, specifically via its FreePrints solutions. Personal Creations will add new personalized gifts, enabling to offer their customers a new range of products that are a perfect fit with existing PlanetArt offerings, opening up new markets. Marketing, geographic and administrative synergies should also generate significant improvements in the profitability of the purchased entity.
Pierre Cesarini, CEO of the Claranova group, said: “We’re excited to welcome Personal Creations and its teams within PlanetArt. Personal Creation is a strategic addition and highly complementary to existing PlanetArt activities. It will enable us to expand PlanetArt’s growth potential in the coming years. Synergies between the two businesses are evident given our expertise in the mobile sector and our global geographic presence. We will also benefit from Personal Creation’s experience in the “gift” sector and its very rich product catalog.”
Next Claranova group events:
2018-2019 annual revenue: August 7, 2019
2018-2019 annual results: October 1, 2019
About Claranova:
A truly global Internet and mobile player, Claranova reported revenue of nearly €140 million in the first-half of 2018-2019, generated over 90% internationally. Claranova has focused since its creation on four specific areas of expertise: understanding major technology domains; ability to define a strategic vision around innovative concepts; implementing innovative business models; and finally, strong global execution capacity at all levels of the Company, including research and development, digital marketing, sales, partnerships and finance. Its businesses are:
- Internet division: a specialist in monetizing Internet traffic. Avanquest boosts its customer impact through cross-selling offerings that maximize Internet traffic while ensuring the most efficient monetization possible;
- Mobile division: a world leader in mobile printing, specifically via its PlanetArt FreePrints and Photobook apps – the cheapest and simplest solutions in the world for printing photos and creating photo albums from a smartphone;
- IoT division: a global platform for IoT (Internet of Things) management, myDevices allows its partners to commercialize turnkey solutions (“IoT in a Box”) to their customers. Ready-to-use solutions are available for roll-out in the medical, hotel, food and beverage, retail and education sectors thanks to these offerings.
For more information on the Claranova group: www.claranova.com or www.twitter.com/claranova_group
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1 EBITDA is the indicator used to monitor the operating profitability of the businesses. In Claranova group it is equal to recurring operating income before depreciation, amortization and share-based payments.
