Alliance Entertainment Holding, a distributor and wholesaler of music, movies, video games, electronics, arcades and collectibles, and Adara Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition corporation, have completed the business combination which was approved at an extraordinary general meeting of Adara’s shareholders on Jan. 18, 2023.
Chairman Bruce Ogilvie and CEO Jeff Walker will continue to lead the combined company, along with its current proven management team.
This transaction values Alliance Entertainment at approximately $480 million. As a public company, Alliance expects to be able to make further investment in growth including automating facilities, upgrading proprietary software that positions Alliance Entertainment to increase market share. Management believes the transaction also positions the company to drive inorganic growth through a roll-up strategy of acquiring and integrating competitors and complementary businesses.
“We believe that today’s milestone combined with our strong revenue growth, expanding customer base and product offering and several successful acquisitions, will help accelerate our future expansion initiatives,” Jeff Walker, CEO of Alliance Entertainment, said. “Alliance Entertainment today is well positioned to continue to capitalize on shifts towards eCommerce and Omni-Channel strategies, especially with retailers and manufacturers vastly increased reliance on their DTC (Direct to Consumer) fulfillment and distribution partners. We are at an inflection point that now positions us to execute a multi-prong growth strategy that we expect will deliver a double-digit revenue growth rate with strong cash generation to the bottom line.”
“Moreover, this business combination will further enable our significant focus on a strategic roll-up strategy of acquiring and integrating competitors and complementary businesses which we believe will drive an accelerated competitive position and value creation,” Bruce Ogilvie, Chairman of Alliance Entertainment, said. “Combined with further investment including automating facilities and upgrading proprietary software, we are confident we can grow revenue and expand margins. In this next phase of our development, we expect to see growth from enhancing our DTC relationships to grow existing revenue lines and improving capabilities which will generate a more attractive overall service offering. We will also continue to expand into new consumer product segments, growing our product offering and providing more to our existing customer base while attracting new customers in the process. The board of Alliance Entertainment would like to thank the team at Adara and its group of investors for the successful completion of the business combination.”
“We congratulate Alliance Entertainment on today’s accomplishment and look forward to their continued evolution as a leading DTC and eCommerce provider for the entertainment industry,” Tom Finke, CEO and Chairman of Adara Acquisition, said. “We are confident Alliance Entertainment will provide shareholders with a diversified investment alternative as one of the largest physical media and entertainment product distributors in the world. We believe their expanding use of automation technology to further impact efficiency, cost, and capacity for future growth will deliver long-term value. We look forward to collaborating with Alliance Entertainment as they strategically position the company to achieve its growth objectives.”
ThinkEquity acted as the advisor to Adara Acquisition in connection with the business combination. Blank Rome served as legal advisor to Adara Acquisition in connection with the business combination. Alliance Entertainment was represented in the transaction by John Frankenheimer, Mitchell Nussbaum, Jessica Isokawa and David Flemming from Loeb & Loeb and were advised by Jeff Franklin of ATI.
