SurfStitch Buys Stab and Magic Seaweed for $20 mill!

In a split of $13.8 million in cash and 4.8 million shares… 

Ain’t biz just a lottery? One minute you’re on the bones of your ass, sitting at the back of planes, driving sputtering Japanese cars, the next you’re kicking down the door of a new beachfront mansion, multiples of teens plucking at your strange fruit.

Just, like, then, the online surf store SurfStitch bought Stab, a little print mag and online portal your ol pal DR started in 2004 and sold six years later (Duh!), and Magic Seaweed, the second-biggest surf site in the world after Surfline, in a deal worth $13.98 million cash and 4.8 million SurfStitch shares.

According to the Australian Financial Review, “SurfStitch chief executive and co-founder Justin Cameron is hopeful that in addition to reducing the company’s reliance on external marketing channels, the two acquisitions will deliver revenue synergies as content on both sites will drive sales to SurfStitch and promote repeat visitation across all platforms.

“SurfStitch’s demonstrated global leadership in action sports and youth culture apparel is greatly enhanced with the addition of Magicseaweed and Stab Magazine,” he said.

“These highly complementary acquisitions represent the voice of SurfStitch‘s core audience, connecting us with our customers and providing us greater insight into their preferences, influences and purchasing behaviour.”

“Mr Cameron added that SurfStitch’s mission is to become the global destination for action sports and youth lifestyle content and online retail.

“Combined with our recent launch of ‘The Lens’, the acquisitions will further SurfStitch‘s global content driven strategy to provide relevant and engaging content to our growing active customer base,” he said.

“A fully-underwritten institutional placement of 25 million shares – representing 11.7 per cent of issued capital and priced at $1.50 per share – will raise the needed $37.5 million cash to pay for Stab and Magicseaweed. This represents a 3.2 per cent discount to SurfStich last close of $1.55 per share.