Renzenbrink & Partner advises ABOUT YOU on the acquisition of Adference

ABOUT YOU GmbH, operator of one of the largest fashion and lifestyle platforms in Europe, has acquired all shares in the leading AdTech company Adference GmbH, which offers bid management technology for Google Ads and Amazon Advertising as well as for Google Comparison Shopping Services (CSS).

Adference was founded in 2014 as a result of several years of research into the analysis and forecasting of buyer behavior based on user-specific and aggregated advertising data at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Adference has developed into a leading provider of automation technology for Google Ads and Amazon Advertising. Adference’s innovative tools use machine learning algorithms to automatically create campaigns and set the optimal bids for millions of keywords and products. Adference employs a 23-strong team of business informatics specialists, data scientists and software developers.

ABOUT YOU was also founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of the Otto Group and is now part of the Group portfolio as an investment company. The fashion tech company sells a range of more than 200,000 items from over 1,200 brands via its customized fashion online store and is one of the largest fashion and lifestyle platforms in Europe with more than eleven million monthly active users. ABOUT YOU generated sales of EUR 461 million in the 2018/19 financial year
. With a company valuation of more than one billion US dollars, ABOUT YOU is considered the first “unicorn” from Hamburg.

Renzenbrink & Partner was able to win ABOUT YOU as a new client through a pitch. The cooperation will extend beyond the Adference transaction. R&P advised ABOUT YOU comprehensively on the acquisition of Adference, including due diligence and all transaction agreements. The Renzenbrink & Partner team consisted of partners Dr. Dennis Schlottmann, Dr. Ulf Renzenbrink (both Corporate/M&A) and Marc H. Kotyrba (Tax) as well as associates Dr. Alexander Haunschild and Pablo Albrecht (both Corporate/M&A).

ABOUT YOU was legally advised on the transaction by Dr. Thomas Müller (Head of Legal) and Lars Behrendt (Tax) from KPMG. The sellers were advised by Dr. Jörgen Tielmann and Dr. Johannes Knop from Luther.