Lightspeed acquisitions

Lightspeed’s latest -

Lightspeed POS signs pair of acquisition deals worth a total of US$925M

Lightspeed to acquire Ecwid and NuORDER to unify commerce ecosystem and ignite business creation

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/lightspeed-acquire-ecwid-n…

Acquisitions accelerate Lightspeed’s transformation to complete commerce platform for businesses throughout the world

MONTREAL, June 7, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Lightspeed (TSX: LSPD) (NYSE: LSPD), the one-stop commerce platform for merchants around the world to simplify, scale and create exceptional customer experiences, today announced it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire two global leaders in digital commerce. Once closed, the acquisitions will provide Lightspeed customers new entry points to the digital economy, unprecedented supply chain management as well as increased opportunities to provide outstanding customer experiences online.

Lightspeed POS Inc. Logo (CNW Group/Lightspeed POS Inc.)
Lightspeed POS Inc. Logo (CNW Group/Lightspeed POS Inc.)
Over the past year, commerce has fundamentally transformed for the businesses that make up the backbone of the global economy. New businesses need fast and easy ways to sell online, while established merchants plan to invest even more in the tools and experiences that will unite their digital and physical operations. Lightspeed will acquire Ecwid, a US-based best-in-class global eCommerce platform, that allows customers to create standalone businesses in minutes. Once integrated, the combination of Lightspeed and Ecwid will help merchants to reach shoppers where they are, whether on social media or digital marketplaces, ushering in newfound selling flexibility and omnichannel experiences.

In addition, following the strong initial reception and success of the Lightspeed Supplier Network, Lightspeed has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire NuORDER, a transformative digital platform connecting businesses and suppliers. Together, Lightspeed and NuORDER will create an industry-leading bridge between the merchant and supplier experience, simplifying product ordering for retailers and offering brands crucial insight into how their products move. The acquisition will capitalize on the early success of the Lightspeed Supplier Network and accelerate the growth of Lightspeed’s financial services offerings, including Lightspeed Payments and Lightspeed Capital, while establishing the company as a global distribution network for leading brands, such as Canada Goose, Converse and Arc’teryx.

“By joining forces with Ecwid and NuORDER, Lightspeed becomes the common thread uniting merchants, suppliers and consumers, a transformation we believe will enable innovative retailers to adapt to the new world of commerce,” said Dax Dasilva, Founder and CEO of Lightspeed. “As economies reopen and business creation accelerates, we hope to embolden entrepreneurs with the tools they need to simplify their operations and scale their ambitions.”

“The distinction between online and brick-and-mortar retail has disappeared. Lightspeed and Ecwid, two best-in-class platforms, will unite to truly empower businesses. By eliminating the barriers merchants face when selling online, we will only more rapidly achieve our common vision of democratizing retail for independent businesses worldwide and enrich the communities they serve,” said Ecwid CEO, Ruslan Fazlyev.

“At NuORDER, we have been on a journey to revolutionize retail by building a global network for brands and retailers. The coming together of Lightspeed and NuORDER accelerates that vision exponentially. The power of connected commerce comes to life now,” said NuORDER co-founders and co-CEO’s Olivia Skuza and Heath Wells. “We are thrilled to join forces with Lightspeed to unlock transformative value for brands and retailers globally. This represents an inflection point in the history of retail.”

Subsequent to the closing of the acquisitions of Ecwid and NuORDER, Lightspeed will serve as the technology partner of choice for hundreds of thousands of customer locations1 and thousands of suppliers worldwide.

Details of transactions

Ecwid currently serves over 130,000 paying customers in over 100 countries around the world. In the period ended March 31, 2021, Ecwid generated revenue2 of over $20 million, growing at a rate of more than 50% year-over-year. Lightspeed will acquire Ecwid for total estimated consideration of approximately $500 million, satisfied by way of payment on closing of approximately $175 million in cash and issuance of subordinate voting shares in the capital of Lightspeed valued at approximately $325 million. The deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions and post-closing working capital adjustment, is expected to close during the quarter ended September 30, 2021 after the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to Ecwid and RBC served as advisor to Lightspeed on the Ecwid transaction.

NuORDER currently serves over 3,000 brands and saw more than 100,000 retailers make more than $11.5 billion in orders through its platform in the trailing twelve month period ended March 31, 2021. It generated revenue2 of over $20 million and grew at a rate exceeding 30% year-over-year during the same period. Lightspeed will acquire NuORDER for total estimated consideration of approximately $425 million, satisfied by way of payment on closing of approximately $212.5 million in cash and the issuance of subordinate voting shares in the capital of Lightspeed valued at approximately $212.5 million. The deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions and post-closing working capital adjustment, is expected to close during the quarter ended September 30, 2021 after the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.

The closing of the two acquisitions are not contingent on each other.

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So, acquisitions bring each around 100m of annual revenues (if we annualize posted quarterly revenues and adjust for growth rate). This means that Lightspeeds annual guidance for next fiscal year from USD 440m (mid-range forecast) should rise should rise by around 150m if they will start counting these numbers in fiscal Q2 (calendar Q3) = roughly 600m. If we account for dilution market cap is around 10m. They would still have around 400m of cash (hopefully no another dilution soon).

I’ve got smallish position in LSPD (4-5%) and it looks like they are trying to consolidate a huge and very fragmented services with focus on SMBs. Acquisitions is good, but I’m a bit worry about all the integrations as in practice usually there are problems with all the synergies and integrations. But for fragmented industries often consolidations give value. Another worry is huge amount of different competitors on different “modules” they are adding. But perhaps “integrated approach” makes is more simple for SMBs to go with one vendor like LSPD and not with many different providers of different services (payments, back office, accounting etc etc). Third worry of mine is organic growth of “only” 41% in last Q. Yes, the software and payments grew organically 48%, but total revenues 41%. This worry is somewhat mitigated be reopenings and hope of acceleration of organic growth.

Another “weak” point compared to our usual companies is relatively low gross margin in mid/high 50s and the margin is not expected to increase as they are focusing on increasing payments penetration which inherently has lower GM.

Overall, not my high conviction position due to the factors mentioned above and more kind of reopening play. I could be missing something important in this assessment of mine…

Best,
V

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I too am a bit leery of acquisitions. I am encouraged however by speaking to two vendors in the last week who use Lightspeed POS. One of these was at a liquor store, and the other at a boutique shop in a resort town. As I was making my purchase I noticed the lightspeed device taking my credit card, so I asked each clerk how they liked the system.

I was expecting them to say something brief, maybe just say that it is fine, and them move on to the next customer. What they did however is say that they LOVE it, and tell me about it for the next several minutes while ignoring other customers. Both said it is the best payment system they have used. The liquor store clerk called the manager over to tell me more. He liked how it kept inventory and simplified ordering. Also, he liked that inventory was editable by store employees. If the staff found a discrepancy they could adjust the inventory in Lightspeed. That was not possible with their old system, and he felt he was now able to keep more accurate inventory and ordering.

So, this is a very small sample size, but I like companies with raving fans. Lightspeed has a couple. If there are problems with integrations, they are not showing up with these users yet.

4wheel.

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One of these was at a liquor store, and the other at a boutique shop in a resort town.
Your lifestyle sounds awesome 4wheel!

These are good experience touch points. I’d be interested how their solutions get expanded globally beyond North America.

I am concerned by:

Channel concentration with Credit Karma and the 3 year contestable contract with the possibility for disintermediation

Only 48% organic growth which hopefully re-opening will fix but will that be just temporary?

Platform competition from Shopify, Square etc

Acquisition integration risk

Cheers
Ant

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