Ackroo Provides Update on Recent Acquisition

Ackroo sees continued progress from Simpliconnect acquisition

HAMILTON, Ontario, March 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ackroo Inc. (TSX-V: AKR; OTC: AKRFF) (the “Company”), a gift card, loyalty marketing, payments and point-of-sale technology consolidator and services provider, is pleased to provide an update on their recent acquisition of Simpliconnect. On January 1^st 2024, Ackroo acquired all of the assets related to Simpliconnect, a US based loyalty marketing provider focused on the convenience and petroleum merchant segment. The Company wishes to provide investors with an update on their progress integrating, operating and optimizing that business.

The Company has managed to streamline operations from a vendor management, client pricing, support and employee standpoint resulting in operational efficiencies and profitability. Ackroo is also building product parity between the Simpliconnect platform and their Ackroo Anywhere platform and has already begun migrating clients over to Ackroo’s core marketing product. This work, both product parity and migration, is expected to be completed by the end of April 2024 which will allow acquired merchants to begin benefiting from the ongoing advancements within the Ackroo platform while also allow current and prospective Ackroo merchants the ability to take advantage of the many features and integrations added via the Simpliconnect product parity work. Once complete the legacy platform will be decommissioned driving greater focus for sales and marketing, saving Ackroo hosting costs, and allowing engineering and support staff to be re-directed to focus on supporting the core Ackroo platform and the recent acquisition of GiftFly.   

The Company has also achieved financial gain from the acquisition in its first year of contribution, delivering $1,234,108 of annual revenue and adding $202,698 of net income representing a strong 16% profit margin. As of January 1^st, 2024, through continued normalization, Ackroo is now generating a 60% + profit margin from this business which they expect will continue through migration and beyond.

From a return on invested capital standpoint, the final consideration from Ackroo was just under $1,800,000 CAD plus 5,625,000 shares after an amendment was made in the spring of 2023, with Ackroo expecting to see the cash investment paid back within 39 months of closing based on the past and current margins being generated. Over the last year, the Company has also bought back 6,068,681 shares via a Normal Course Issuer Bid at an average price of $0.087 per share effectively cancelling out the shares issued to Simpliconnect earlier in the year. At $0.087 a share the 5,625,000 shares cost Ackroo approximately $489,375 which equates to about 8 months of future earnings from this business for a total expected payback time of about 47 months. This falls within the Company’s payback model and positions Ackroo for another successful accretive acquisition.