GAMBLING INSIDER

Affiliate heavyweight Catena Media has announced the acquisition of troubled football and DFS website Squawka.com for an upfront fee of £1m.

In addition to the upfront payment of £1m, the acquisition is expected to generate annual sales of €2m, with an estimated margin of 60%.

The Squawka website currently attracts four million users a month and has approximately 800,000 followers on Twitter. Squawka and its related sites currently only generate revenues through banner advertising. Following a recent downturn in revenues, the company revealed that it was in financial difficulties and voluntarily placed itself in administration.

Catena Media have confirmed that Squawka’s four employees will relocate its London office upon completion of the transaction.

Announcing the companies’ second merger this month, Henrik Persson Ekdahl, Acting CEO, Catena Media said: “We see potential for Squawka as a high-volume traffic site with a global audience, to which we look forward to implementing an affiliation business model.

"The company has invested in automatic data feeds for their user-friendly graphical interfaces, which is something we aim to integrate into other Catena Media products. Squawka will sit alongside our existing brands, increasing our coverage in the football vertical while entering the upcoming sports year.”