logo image
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs
MENU
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs

Advertise on Slator! Download the 2021 Online Media Kit Now

  • Slator Market Intelligence
  • Slator Advertising Services
  • Slator Advisory
  • Login
Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Advertisement
Keywords Studios Buys Machine Translation Provider KantanMT for Up to EUR 7 Million

1 year ago

December 17, 2019

Keywords Studios Buys Machine Translation Provider KantanMT for Up to EUR 7 Million

M&A and Funding ·

by Florian Faes

On December 17, 2019

1 year ago
M&A and Funding ·

by Florian Faes

On December 17, 2019

Keywords Studios Buys Machine Translation Provider KantanMT for Up to EUR 7 Million

Keywords Studios, the Ireland-based, London-listed technical services provider to the video games industry (including game localization), on December 17, 2019, announced the acquisition of fellow Dublin-headquartered machine translation company KantanMT, which trades under the name Xcelerator Machine Translations Ltd.

Keywords is paying a total consideration of up to EUR 7m (USD 7.8m), including a substantial earn-out component. Initially, Keywords will pay EUR 3.5m in cash to Kantan Founder Tony O’Dowd as well as Kantan’s backers, including Delta Partners and Enterprise Ireland.

Another portion will be paid to O’Dowd in newly issued shares. As for the earn-out component, Keywords said, “The remaining EUR 2.9m consideration will become payable to Tony O’Dowd, in a mix of cash and shares, based upon performance targets for Kantan for the three years post completion.”

Advertisement

Keywords said Kantan generated annual revenues of EUR 0.8m in its most recent financial year ended March 31, 2019 and achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22%. If the full consideration were to be paid, it would translate into a purchase price of 8.75x revenues and 39x adjusted EBITDA. This sets an interesting data point for the dozen or so pure-play machine translation players that operate a B2B managed service model; as opposed to, for example, DeepL’s model, which is geared more toward B2C.

Slator 2020 Language Industry Market Report

Data and Research, Slator reports
55 pages. Total market size, biz dev and sales insights, TMS & MT review, buyer segment analysis, M&A, Covid impact & outlook.
$480 BUY NOW

KantanMT was founded in 2011, at a time when statistical machine translation was still the standard, and transitioned to neural machine translation models after 2016. The company’s client portfolio includes eBay, VistaPrint, the European Commission, and language service providers, according to the announcement. The company currently employs nine people and is based at Dublin City University’s ADAPT Centre in Ireland.

The same announcement said Keywords had used Kantan as a vendor before. The acquisition is interesting; gaming is a notoriously difficult space for machine translation given the content’s highly creative nature and fan vigilance over how games are localized.

Travel and Retail 2019 Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2019 Travel & Retail Localization Report

Data and Research, Slator reports
29-page report. Travel and retail overview. Role of the language services industry. Market size. Competitive landscape. Biz Dev.
$230 BUY NOW

According to Keywords CEO Andrew Day, “Video games are highly context specific, often being set in fantasy worlds, are highly immersive, and therefore require both high quality and highly adapted localisation, are multi branching and use real time, AI generated content.”

Keywords has been highly acquisitive since its 2013 IPO, and the Kantan acquisition is in line with its strategy of bolting on niche capabilities and technologies. Alongside the Kantan deal, Keywords also announced the acquisition of London-based Ichi, a creative and marketing services firm, for GBP 3.2m (USD 4.22m), and Canadian audio recording and casting services company Syllabes for CAD 0.475m (USD 0.36m).

Slator 2019 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Data and Research, Slator reports
34-page report. Language industry M&A and startup funding. Transaction valuations, trade sales, financial backing, private equity influence, main rationale, seller verticals, geographical analysis, startup funding analysis.
$450 BUY NOW

TAGS

ADAPT CentreAndrew DayDeepLDublin City Universitygame localizationKantanMTKeywords Studiosmachine translationneural machine translationTony O'Dowd
SHARE
Florian Faes

By Florian Faes

Co-Founder of Slator. Linguist, business developer, and mountain runner. Based in the beautiful lakeside city of Zurich, Switzerland.

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SLATOR WEEKLY

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

SUBSCRIBE

SlatorSweepSlatorPro
ResearchRFP CENTER

PUBLISH

PRESS RELEASEDIRECTORY LISTING
JOB ADEVENT LISTING

Bespoke advisory including speaking, briefings and M&A

SLATOR ADVISORY
Advertisement

Featured Reports

See all
Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

by Slator

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

by Slator

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

by Slator

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

by Slator

Press Releases

See all
XTRF Launches a Bi-Monthly Free Networking Event for Localization Professionals

XTRF Launches a Bi-Monthly Free Networking Event for Localization Professionals

by XTRF

150 Million Words Translated: the German EU Council Presidency Translator Sets New Records

150 Million Words Translated: the German EU Council Presidency Translator Sets New Records

by Tilde

BeLazy Announces Full Automation for Plunet

BeLazy Announces Full Automation for Plunet

by BeLazy

Upcoming Events

See All
  1. Memsource MT Post-Editing Pricing Models Webinar

    Pricing Models for MT Post-Editing Workshop

    by Memsource

    · February 3

    Hear a panel of innovative localization professionals share different approaches for MT post-editing pricing.

    More info FREE

Featured Companies

See all
Text United

Text United

Memsource

Memsource

Wordbank

Wordbank

Protranslating

Protranslating

Seprotec

Seprotec

Versacom

Versacom

SDL

SDL

Smartling

Smartling

Lingotek

Lingotek

XTM International

XTM International

Smartcat

Smartcat

Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders

STAR Group

STAR Group

memoQ Translation Technologies

memoQ Translation Technologies

Advertisement

Popular articles

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

by Esther Bond

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

by Slator

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

by Monica Jamieson

SlatorPod: The Weekly Language Industry Podcast

connect with us

footer logo

Slator makes business sense of the language services and technology market.

Our Company

  • Support
  • About us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to the Slator Weekly

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

© 2021 Slator. All rights reserved.

Sign up to the Slator Weekly

Join over 13,000 subscribers and get the latest language industry intelligence every Friday

Your information will never be shared with third parties. No Spam.