NEW YORK, Feb. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Wix.com Ltd.
(Nasdaq: WIX) has announced that it has acquired DeviantArt, one of
the world's largest online communities dedicated to artists, art
enthusiasts and designers. The acquisition represents inherent
opportunities in key growth areas for Wix including product
development, brand recognition and increased traffic potential.
Wix will provide DeviantArt users easy access to powerful tools
specifically designed to help emerging artists create and showcase
their creativity online and build their brands. At the same time,
Wix creatives and designers will have access to DeviantArt's
thriving community of tens of millions of visual artists.
DeviantArt is consistently one of the most visited websites
worldwide and has grown organically for over a decade with
virtually no investment in marketing or advertising. Currently, the
community boasts over 325 million individual pieces of original art
and more than 40 million registered members.
Wix and DeviantArt share a vision to provide designers and
artists of all types a platform on which they can create, manage
and showcase their work online, grow their audience and build their
own global brands. Wix will provide technology and marketing
expertise to the DeviantArt universe enabling its users to further
their reach and increase engagement, both online and on mobile.
"Over its 16-year history, DeviantArt has built an impressive
online community that is incredibly loyal, highly engaged and
regularly produces stunning art and design," said Avishai Abrahami, Co-founder and CEO of Wix.
"The DeviantArt community is talented and robust and hungry for
additional product expertise. We understand their passion, share
their creative vision and are excited to offer the power of the Wix
platform to their millions of artists."
DeviantArt's focus on developing and fostering online
collaboration and communities will provide Wix users a platform to
engage with creative designers and artists across multiple mediums.
Together the companies will strive to create an innovative gallery
for artists globally, mixing world class creative with unmatched
opportunities for design, display and distribution.
"We founded DeviantArt to enable the creative spirit in
everyone, creating a platform dedicated to the vision and talent of
the community which could be shared with the world," said
Angelo Sotira, Co-founder and CEO of
DeviantArt. "This combined effort with Wix creates new
opportunities for innovation never before seen on the Internet and
an amazing super-charged offering to our community members. We look
forward to being part of the Wix team, and we are humbled by the
respect and love they have shown to our community."
As part of this acquisition, Angelo
Sotira, Co-founder and CEO of DeviantArt, will join the Wix
management team. DeviantArt will continue to foster its community
from its headquarters in Los
Angeles, and all of its employees will join Wix.
About the Acquisition
Through this transaction, Wix
has acquired 100 percent of DeviantArt's capital stock in exchange
for approximately $36 million in
cash, including approximately $3
million of assumed liabilities. As of December 31, 2016, Wix had $172 million in cash on its balance sheet. The
transaction closed on February 22,
2017, and will be recorded in Wix's first quarter 2017
financial statements.
Financial Outlook
Upon this acquisition, Wix intends
to invest in growing and enhancing the DeviantArt community and
platform, including its user experience on desktop and mobile
products and the DeviantArt mobile app. Wix also intends to invest
in the integration of the platforms in order to create incremental
value for its users. These investments will include the addition of
headcount in R&D and sales and marketing throughout the year.
DeviantArt's existing business will continue to operate and gain
the benefit of this additional investment from Wix, adding more
value over time.
As a result of this transaction, Wix is making the following
adjustments to its previous outlook for the full year 2017:
- Increasing its revenue outlook by approximately $8 million to $417
- $419 million
- Increasing its collections outlook by approximately
$9 million to $461 - $467
million
- Investments in the platform are expected to decrease FY17 free
cash flow outlook by approximately $8
million to $63 - $64 million. This estimate reflects further
investment in R&D and marketing, integration costs, employee
retention bonus payments and other transaction related
expenses
Wix maintains its outlook for the first quarter 2017 as the
transaction's impact will not be material during this quarter. Wix
will provide further detail on the transaction's impact when it
reports its first quarter 2017 results.
About Wix.com
Wix.com is a leading cloud-based web
development platform with more than 100 million registered users
worldwide. Wix was founded on the belief that the Internet should
be accessible to everyone to develop, create and contribute.
Through free and premium subscriptions, Wix empowers millions of
businesses, organizations, professionals and individuals to take
their businesses, brands and workflow online. Wix ADI, the Wix
Editor and a highly curated App
Market enable users to build and manage a fully integrated
and dynamic digital presence. Wix's headquarters are in
Tel Aviv with offices in Be'er
Sheva, San Francisco, New York, Miami, Berlin, Vilnius and Dnepropetrovsk.
Visit us: on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+.
Download: Wix App for free in Google Play and in the App
Store.
About DeviantArt
DeviantArt was created to entertain,
inspire, and empower the artist and art lover in all of us. Founded
in August 2000, DeviantArt is home to
over 40 million registered members worldwide and features an
extensive platform used to exhibit, promote, and discover works and
other members within a peer community. As the largest aggregator of
creative talent on the Internet, fueled by tens of thousands of
daily submissions and reaching over 45 million monthly unique
visitors, DeviantArt is one of the world's largest websites
enabling participation in the arts at a scale never imagined in the
traditional art world.
Visit us: on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
Google+.
Download: The DeviantArt Mobile App for free in Google
Play and in the App Store.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Collections and free cash
flow (collectively the "non-GAAP financial measures") are non-GAAP
financial measures. Collections represents the total cash collected
by us from our customers in a given period and is calculated by
adding the change in deferred revenues for a particular period to
revenues for the same period. Free cash flow is defined as net cash
provided by (used in) operating activities less capital
expenditures. The Company has not reconciled its guidance as
to free cash flow to net cash provided by (used in) operating
activities because it does not provide guidance for net cash
provided by (used in) operating activities. As items that impact
net cash provided by (used in) operating activities are out of the
Company's control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted, the
Company is unable to provide such guidance. Accordingly, a
reconciliation to net cash provided by (used in) operating
activities is not available without unreasonable effort.
The presentation of this financial information is not intended
to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior
to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance
with GAAP. The Company uses these non-GAAP financial measures for
financial and operational decision making and as a means to
evaluate period-to-period comparisons. The Company believes that it
provides useful information about operating results, enhance the
overall understanding of past financial performance and future
prospects, and allow for greater transparency with respect to key
metrics used by management in its financial and operational
decision making.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains
forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the safe harbor
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking
statements may include projections regarding our future performance
and may be identified by words like "anticipate," "assume,"
"believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend,"
"may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "outlook,"
"future," "will," "seek" and similar terms or phrases. The
forward-looking statements contained in this press release are
based on management's current expectations, which are subject to
uncertainty, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult
to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Important
factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially
from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include,
among others, our ability to grow our user base and premium
subscriptions; our ability to maintain and enhance our brand and
reputation; our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the
acquisition of DeviantArt; our ability to successfully integrate
and operate DeviantArt; our ability to manage the growth of our
infrastructure effectively; changes to technologies used in our
solutions or in global, national, regional or local economic,
business, competitive, market, regulatory and other factors
discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's 2015
annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on April 13, 2016. Any
forward-looking statement made by us in this press release speaks
only as of the date hereof. Factors or events that could cause our
actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is
not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no
obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future developments or
otherwise.
All Trademarks are the Property of their
Respective Owners
Investor Relations:
Ryan
Gee
Wix.com
ir@wix.com
415-223-2610
Media Relations:
Vivian
Hernandez
Wix.com
pr@wix.com
415-517-6539
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SOURCE Wix.com Ltd.