GMGI shareholders voted in favour of the acquisition in March.
When GMGI announced the planned merger in January 2023, it explained MeridianBet would give it more access to regulated B2C markets. The deal was expected to close in the first half of 2023.
The Loev Law Firm acted as legal counsel to Golden Matrix in regards to the transaction and Howard & Howard acted as legal counsel for MeridianBet.
The stock of the new combined company will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the GMGI ticker symbol.
Brian Goodman, CEO of GMGI, said that GMGI is now well situated to continue capitalising on its current growth.
“This is a momentous occasion and one that we believe will result in a fundamental, as well as a transformational, change for our rapidly growing company,” said Goodman.
“The consolidated businesses are expected to deliver significant increases in both revenues and profitability and we believe we are now well-positioned to continue our growth trajectory and deliver incremental value to all our stakeholders.”
Acquisition more than a year in the making
Six months after confirming the deal, GMGI and MeridianBet agreed to a number of amended terms. The new terms saw the cash to be paid by GMGI at closing lowered from $50.0m to $30.0m. A further $20.0m in non-contingent cash consideration was agreed to be paid post-close.
It was also agreed that stock consideration will be $3 per share, with 82,141,857 common stock shares due at the deal’s initial closing. These amended terms re-evaluated the deal at roughly $331.0m.
In October 2023, GMGI made further amendments to the deal. The stand-out aspect of this round was an extension to the original agreement. This projected that the deal would close in Q1 2024.
The other revision made in October related to the financial closing terms. This dictated that GMGI could use up to $20.0m of cash in hand of MeridianBet to pay part of the $30.0m due at closing.
The closure of the deal comes after GMGI reported record results in its first quarter ended 31 January 2024. Revenue was up 9.3% year-on-year to $11.8m, an all-time high. Adjusted EBITDA hit $1.2m, an increase of 33.8%, while B2B and B2C revenue totalled at $4.6m and $7.2m respectively.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/strategy/ma/golden-matrix-completes-acquisition-of-meridianbet/
