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SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ: API ) (“Agora”), a pioneer and leading platform for real-time engagement APIs, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the cloud customer engagement business segment of Easemob, which was acquired by Agora in early 2021, to TI Cloud Inc. (“TI Cloud”) for approximately $14.6 million (subject to certain closing adjustments) in cash transactions.
TI Cloud is a leading customer lifecycle SaaS provider in China and is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Agora was the lead investor in TI Cloud’s June 2022 initial public offering and currently holds approximately 2.8% of TI Cloud.
“Since our acquisition of Easemob in early 2021, Easemob’s chat API business has been integrated with our platform to complement our core product offering.” Earlier this year, we announced Agora Chat, which leveraged Easemob’s experience in providing chat APIs and Agora’s global infrastructure,” said Tony Zhao, founder, president and CEO of Agora. “As we continue to focus our resources on our core products, the board believes that the sale of Easemob’s second segment, the customer engagement cloud business, is in the best interests of Agora’s shareholders, as well as the employees of that business.” TI Cloud is the market leader in customer engagement cloud with a proven track record of growth and profitability. We believe this transaction has the potential to create significant product and customer synergies, which Agora will benefit from as a TI Cloud shareholder.”
“We see tremendous strategic synergy between TI Cloud and Easemob’s cloud customer engagement business, both in optimizing our joint product offering and better serving our combined customer base,” commented Wu Qiang, founder, president and CEO TI Cloud. “Easemob’s customer engagement cloud business perfectly complements our customer contact solutions and will further increase our market share in verticals such as technology, insurance and automotive.” We believe this transaction will also help accelerate the realization of TI Cloud’s vision to make customer contact a better experience, with improved efficiency.”
Revenues and gross profit attributable to this business segment were approximately $7.2 million and $5.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2020; and were approximately $8.8 million and $6.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. Easemob’s pre-tax profit and net profit (including both the Customer Engagement Cloud and Chat API business segments) were approximately $3.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, and both were approximately negative $3.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. Total assets attributable to the Customer Engagement Cloud business segment as of September 30, 2022 were approximately $1.3 million.
The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. There is no guarantee that the transaction will be completed within the stipulated time or that it will be completed at all. Shareholders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this announcement.
About Agora
Agora is a pioneer and global leader in Real-Time Engagement Platform as a Service or RTE-PaaS. Agora’s mission is to make real-time engagement ubiquitous, enabling everyone to interact with anyone, in any app, anytime, anywhere. Agora’s cloud platform provides developers with simple, flexible and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to incorporate voice, video, real-time interactive live streaming, chat, whiteboard and artificial intelligence capabilities into their applications.
About TI Cloud
TI Cloud (stock code: 2167.HK), founded in Beijing in 2006, is a leading customer lifecycle SaaS provider in China. It offers a wide range of cloud-based customer contact solutions, which are communication solutions that enable businesses to engage in multi-channel customer interactions. TI Cloud is China’s largest provider of customer contact solutions deployed in public clouds, measured by revenue in 2021, with a market share of 10.3%, according to an industry report by China Insights Consultancy.
Safe Harbor Statements
This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Litigation Reform Act for private securities from 1995. statements that are not statements of historical or current fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding Agora’s financial prospects, beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements include statements that contain words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “project,” “will” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Agora’s current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Agora’s actual results and timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, risks related to the growth of the RTE-PaaS market; Agora’s ability to manage its growth and expand its business; the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global markets and Agora’s business, operations and customers; Agora’s ability to attract new developers and convert them into customers; Agora’s ability to retain existing customers and expand their use of Agora’s platform and products; Agora’s ability to drive the popularity of existing use cases and enable new use cases, including quality improvements and the introduction of new products, features and functionality; Agora’s variable operating results; competition; the impact of broader technology and market trends on Agora’s business and prospects; general economic conditions and their impact on customer and end-user demand; and other risks and uncertainties included elsewhere in Agora’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the final prospectus relating to the IPO filed with the SEC on June 26, 2020. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these terms – statements that speak only as of the date of this release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and Agora undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement.
For more information visit: www.agora.io.
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