Stellar Acquisition III, Inc. (Stellar) (NASDAQ: STLR), a blank check company formed for the purpose of acquiring, through a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, recapitalization, exchangeable share transaction or other similar business transaction with one or more operating businesses or assets, announced on Wednesday it has entered into a definitive Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) to combine with Phunware, Inc. (Phunware). According to the company, this transaction values Phunware at an enterprise value of $301 million, on a cash-free, debt-free basis, with the transaction consideration to be paid in newly issued equity securities of Stellar.
“The transaction with Phunware enables Stellar to enter two of the most innovative and rapidly growing sectors within the technology space: mobile cloud software and blockchain. Phunware’s mobile application lifecycle management platform delivers mobile marketing automation, analytics and business intelligence, alerts, notifications and messaging, content management, location-based services, audience engagement, audience monetization, vertical solutions, big data, and crypto networking. The platform processes over 4 billion events per day, totaling over 1.4 trillion events per year. This amounts to petabytes of actionable data across thousands of mobile application portfolios. Currently, Phunware receives revenue from a large and diversified customer base that includes numerous Fortune 5000 companies in both Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) via recurring revenue streams and transactional formats.”
While sharing more details about the partnership, Akis Tsirigakis, Co-CEO of Stellar, stated:
“We are very pleased to announce this transaction and our entry into the mobile cloud software and blockchain sectors, both extremely attractive and rapidly growing market segments, with great potential for many years to come. Phunware is in the process of implementing its ambitious plan to become the global leader in Multiscreen as a Service (MaaS) and becoming a public company, which will allow Phunware to further enhance its quality and governance foundations.”
Alan S. Knitowski, CEO of Phunware, added:
“Our stated goal has always been to reach every connected device on Earth through mobile applications, and this transaction turbocharges our ability to achieve that vision. With a current reach to over one in ten devices worldwide, our platform is a formidable foundation to build upon. Merging with Stellar will enable us to scale that foundation through organic and inorganic growth, including the PhunCoin Token Generation Event. We are extremely proud of this important milestone and are excited for the future.”
Phunware was established in February 2009 and has notable investors such as Wavemaker Partners (Draper Network Fund), Fraser McCombs Ventures, Maxima Ventures, Samsung, Cisco Investments, World Wrestling Entertainment, PLDT Capital, Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN), Baylor Angel Network (BAN). Phunware intends to initiate within the first half of 2018 a Token Generation Event (“TGE”) based on its “PhunCoin™” crypto networking ecosystem.