Roundtable (NASDAQ:RTB) announced a $1 billion, 10-year agreement with The Arena Group, now operating as Paradium.AI (NYSE:PAAI), that will transfer 24 media brands—reaching nearly 100 million monthly consumers—onto its MediaOS platform.
The deal requires Roundtable to make a $89 million minority investment in PAAI for approximately 49% of the company in a private transaction. Following closure, Roundtable projects $100 million in annualized revenue and an EBITDA-positive run rate on a stand-alone basis.
All of PAAI's publishing, advertising, technology, syndication, streaming, data and community functions will move to Roundtable's MediaOS platform. Roundtable will also receive a worldwide, non-cancelable, perpetual license to PAAI's technical assets for integration across its customer base.
Roundtable's platform combines AI and decentralized finance technology to manage publishing, hosting, monetization, syndication and payment operations. Hundreds of journalists across the migrated brands will use Roundtable's payment infrastructure, which is integrated with Coinbase.
Named brands include TheStreet, Parade, Men's Journal, Athlon Sports, Autoblog and Powder.
The partnership reunites PAAI CEO Paul Edmondson with Roundtable founders James Heckman and Bill Sornsin, who previously worked together in 2020.
"This is the apex of what we have architected over decades," said Heckman, Roundtable's chief executive. "Roundtable will have the scale to provide premium publishers and advertisers a profitable, brand-safe ecosystem."
The agreements remain subject to additional conditions, including funding requirements, with the transactions expected to close in the fourth quarter.
