SeaChange, Triller in $5bn merger
December 23, 2021
By Colin Mann
Video software specialist SeaChange International, together with short video app company Triller Hold (TrillerVerz), have entered into a definitive agreement and plan of merger to combine SeaChange with TrillerVerz. The proposed business combination is expected to ultimately result in a value of the combined company at approximately $5 billion (€4.41bn).
TrillerVerz believes it is positioned to become a leading AI-powered social media platform for content, creators & commerce and is anticipated to be publicly traded on a US national exchange through the proposed Business Combination.
After completing the proposed combination, SeaChange will change its name to ‘TrillerVerz Corp’. The ticker symbol is expected to change from ‘SEAC’ currently listed on Nasdaq to the new ticker symbol ‘ILL’.
TrillerVerz expects it will create a leading voice on the Web3.0 movement and embrace the power of decentralised systems to enable greater participation in the multi-hundred billion dollar creator economy. TrillerVerz believes that creators deserve to own, manage, distribute and monetise their content, and TrillerVerz is designed for ever greater creator control, extensibility, and agency.
TrillerVerz’s services enable creators of all kinds (artists, athletes, influencers, public figures, and brands) to engage and build audiences across all open platforms with unique channels of communication they can control. TrillerVerz enables over 750 million interactions with consumers every month.
TrillerVerz’s proprietary AI-based ecosystem enables content and experiences that unlock the vast relationships between creators, tastemakers, and influencers in the globe’s most coveted demographic, the 18- to the 34-year-old marketplace.
TrillerVerz claims a proven track record of producing world-class content around the Triller Fight Club and Verzuzbrands, showcasing artists, athletes, and personalities and building a large, growing, and re-targetable audience of millions of users around the world. TrillerVerz has successfully deployed innovative solutions combining in-venue, Pay-Per-View (traditional media & digital), subscription, sponsorship, and advertising monetisation for its partner brands. The Company boasts a diverse and robust creator network that shapes content and culture with billions of followers worldwide. The Company has built an extensible platform for marketing, advertising, and e-commerce engagement enabling brands to construct and optimise the entire customer journey from awareness to purchase process to loyalty.
TrillerVerz plans to diversify its revenue streams by expanding its global footprint and investment in new growth opportunities across the creator economy and emerging technologies. The combined company will be well-positioned to pursue a robust acquisition strategy that will only strengthen its economic engine.
The TrillerVerz platform drives more than 750 million user interactions per month, reflecting 2x year-over-year growth in user engagement and 5.3x year-over-year growth in the number of paying users, which TrillerVerz believes places it in the upper echelon of social media platforms globally. With today’s news, TrillerVerz and SeaChange believe they are set to take a significant step forward in their goal.
The boards of both TrillerVerz and SeaChange have approved the proposed Business Combination. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory and stockholder approvals and the satisfaction of other closing conditions, including specified working capital requirements.
Upon closing, the combined company will be led by TrillerVerz’s CEO, Mahi de Silva, who will also become Chairman of the Board. Peter Aquino, President and CEO of SeaChange will join the TrillerVerz team.
“We are thrilled to announce this important milestone of TrillerVerz’s plans to enter the public market,” declared de Silva. “In our short history, we have evolved from a disruptive social media platform and creator of content to one of the world’s most successful platforms where creators, commerce, and culture meet.”
“Today, TrillerVerz’s combined ecosystem of creators are the younger generations’ most recognised and followed brands globally. We believe TrillerVerz is becoming the voice of youth culture, a brand that sits at the nexus of content, creator, commerce, and culture in the digital world. Our strategy is to continue to build the world’s largest stage for creators to distribute and monetise viral and engaging content with experiences that elevate culture. We believe that combining with SeaChange accelerates our advertising and marketing capabilities by extending our reach to cable, satellite, and OTT media. We believe the proposed Business Combination will enable investors to participate in the expected growth of TrillerVerz and enable TrillerVerz access to the capital markets, which we believe will help accelerate growth. We are so grateful to the millions of loyal fans who have helped us take TrillerVerz to the next level, without whom this would not have been possible,” he added.
“The business combination with TrillerVerz represents a tremendous opportunity to invest in the future of creativity,” stated Aquino. “We believe that TrillerVerz’s unmatched social media reach, Gen Z engagement, and the opportunity to meaningfully expand its global multi-platform presence across content, commerce, creators, and being at the forefront of e-commerce, adtech, and NFTs, including the metaverse, is a compelling investment with the potential to create significant value.”
“Having been at the center of adtech and martech for over a decade, SeaChange’s management and directors are in a unique position to understand the TrillerVerz business and are proud to be involved in shepherding Web3.0 to the world with TrillerVerz. With its AI content and commerce engine, TrillerVerz is poised to be a leader in social adtech and martech and has redefined how a customer is engaged and transacted. We believe that the TrillerVerz product line sets a foundation and future unlike any other company we were in discussions with, comparable to Facebook and Google,” he concluded.