Another company from the wave of tech flotations in 2020-2021 has come to the end of the road on the stock exchange with a painful loss for investors. The company in question this time is Glassbox (TASE: GLBX), which provides browsing data analytics for Internet sites and smartphone applications.
The company reports that it will be sold for NIS 500 million to Alexander Assim’s Alicorn Venture Capital Partners, which was founded in 2017 and invests in growth technology companies chiefly in Israel and the UK. The acquisition by Alicorn, a previous investor in Glassbox, is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2024. According to the report, Glassbox’s current management team will be retained under the new ownership.
Glassbox was founded in 2010. After laying off 21% of its workforce last year with the aim of reducing losses, it employed 241 people at the end of March this year.
Glassbox CEO Yaron Morgenstern talks in the acquisition announcement of an exit "that portends an exciting and important period in the development of the company" and adds that it represents "a strong vote of confidence", but Tel Aviv investors will see things otherwise. As far as they are concerned, this is a business failure, as the company will be sold at a loss of 57% on its flotation price. Glassbox will be sold to Alicorn for NIS 41.30 per share, after the company was floated on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in June 2021 at NIS 95.04 per share, or a post-money valuation of over NIS 1.1 billion.
In fact, the company’s share price fell by more than 80%, but it rose by more than 100% in the past year following a streamlining program and the conclusion of a battle within its management.
It all started when a large shareholder called Ibex Investors, which currently holds 32.2% of the company, sued for the appointment of a director on its behalf to the board of directors. The lawsuit was cancelled last November after Ibex Investors got its way, and three directors on its behalf and on behalf of other parties at interest joined the board.
In the past year, Glassbox has launched two AI-based tools, and sees that field as a significant revenue source in the future.
In its 2023 financials, Glassbox reported a 17% rise in annual recurring revenue (ARR) to $57.3 million, a fine result, but in its flotation prospectus published in early 2021 it predicted ARR of $100 million within two to four years. In its latest financials, that target is put back to sometime "in the course of 2026."
Glassbox cut its operating loss by 55% in 2023 to $10.5 million, while its net loss was $16.6 million, down from over $33 million the previous year. It also cut its cash burn rate to $4 million from $16.3 million the previous year, and it has over $20 million cash.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 19, 2024.
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