Nasdaq: PERI. Founded 1999 as IncrediMail. CEO Tal Jacobson. Five reinventions — email client → toolbar → search monetization → $743M peak → search cliff → AI-native DOOH/CTV/retail media rebuild. Hivestack $100M acquisition. 2025 revenue $439.9M. CTV +42%, DOOH +36%, Retail Media +36%.
Nasdaq: PERI · TASE: PERI · Founded 1999 as IncrediMail · Holon, Israel · CEO Tal Jacobson · 2025 revenue $439.9M · CTV +42%, DOOH +36%, Retail Media +36%.
Perion Network is the Israeli ad-tech company that has reinvented itself five times — from email client to toolbar to search monetizer to omnichannel platform. Now rebuilding around DOOH, CTV, and retail media after a $245M search-revenue cliff.
At a Glance
| Company | Perion Network Ltd. (formerly IncrediMail) |
| Tickers | Nasdaq: PERI · TASE: PERI |
| Founded | 1999, by Yaron and Ofer Adler (as IncrediMail) |
| Rebranded | November 2011 (IncrediMail → Perion) |
| Nasdaq IPO | January 2006 |
| TASE listing | November 2007 |
| HQ | Holon, Israel (also New York) |
| CEO | Tal Jacobson (since August 2023; formerly GM of CodeFuel; ex-SimilarWeb CRO) |
| CFO | Elad Tzubery (ex-Allot controller) |
| Products | Perion One platform, Outmax AI Agent, CodeFuel (search), Undertone (display/video), DOOH (ex-Hivestack), SORT (cookieless targeting) |
| 2023 revenue | $743.2M (peak) |
| 2024 revenue | $498.3M (–33% YoY; Microsoft search contract changes) |
| 2025 revenue | $439.9M (–12% YoY) |
| 2025 growth engines | CTV +42%, DOOH +36%, Retail Media +36% |
| Key acquisition | Hivestack (Dec 2023, $100M cash + $25M earn-out) — DOOH platform |
| Employees | ~420 |
Five lives of an Israeli ad-tech company
Perion's corporate history is a case study in Israeli tech survival — five distinct business models across 27 years, each built on the wreckage of the last.
Life 1: IncrediMail (1999–2011). Yaron and Ofer Adler founded the company in 1999 as IncrediMail — a consumer email client that let users customize their email with animations, backgrounds, and sound effects. It was a product of the late-1990s internet. IncrediMail went public on Nasdaq in January 2006 and generated consistent cash flow from a loyal consumer base, but the category was shrinking as webmail (Gmail, Yahoo Mail) replaced desktop email clients.
Life 2: Toolbar and distribution (2011–2015). Perion rebranded in November 2011 and pivoted to search distribution — browser toolbars, extensions, and default-search monetization through acquisitions including SweetPacks (SweetIM) and Conduit's ClientConnect business. The model was high-margin but reputation-adjacent: browser toolbars were controversial, and the category eventually attracted regulatory scrutiny and browser-level blocks.
Life 3: CodeFuel and search monetization (2015–2023). The acquisition of Undertone in 2015 gave Perion a premium display and video advertising business. CodeFuel, the search monetization unit, became the company's primary revenue engine through a strategic partnership with Microsoft's Bing platform. Tal Jacobson — the future CEO — ran CodeFuel and turned it into a significant driver of Perion's market share. The company won the Microsoft Advertising Global Supply Partner Award. By 2023, Perion hit $743 million in revenue with $117 million in net income.
Life 4: The search cliff (2024). In 2024, Microsoft changed the terms of its Bing search partnership, sharply reducing the revenue Perion could generate from search distribution. Revenue collapsed to $498.3 million — a 33% decline. Search revenue specifically fell from hundreds of millions to a fraction of its peak. The company's market cap cratered. It was the single-largest revenue disruption in Perion's history.
Life 5: Perion One and AI-native ad-tech (2025–present). Under CEO Jacobson, Perion is rebuilding around three growth channels: digital out-of-home (DOOH, powered by the Hivestack acquisition), connected TV (CTV), and retail media. The unifying platform is Perion One — an AI-native execution infrastructure that integrates all channels. The Outmax AI Agent, launched in 2025, uses AI to automate campaign execution and optimize media spend. In 2025, CTV revenue grew 42%, DOOH grew 36%, and retail media grew 36% — even as total revenue declined 12% to $439.9 million because the search decline outpaced the growth channels.
The Hivestack acquisition
The defining M&A move of the Jacobson era. In December 2023, Perion completed the acquisition of Hivestack, a Montreal-based programmatic digital out-of-home platform, for $100 million in cash plus up to $25 million in performance-based payments tied to EBITDA and contribution-ex-TAC targets through 2026. Hivestack's platform connects brands, agencies, and media owners across DOOH inventory globally — digital billboards, transit screens, retail displays, and urban media surfaces.
The acquisition gave Perion an immediate full-stack DOOH capability: demand-side platform, supply-side platform, ad server, and header bidder. In November 2025, Perion launched the Perion DOOH Player, completing the full-stack integration. DOOH revenue reached $24.1 million in Q3 2025 alone, up 26% year-over-year, and grew 36% for the full year. The Albertsons Media Collective partnership — giving advertisers access to 100 million verified shoppers across 2,200+ store locations — demonstrated the convergence of DOOH and retail media.
The Jacobson reset
Tal Jacobson took over as CEO in August 2023, succeeding Doron Gerstel, who had led Perion's earlier turnaround from the toolbar era to the search-monetization peak. Jacobson brought two decades of ad-tech experience — including his tenure as Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Business Development Officer at SimilarWeb from 2012 to 2017, where he helped drive the company's growth into unicorn territory.
Jacobson's strategic thesis is Perion One: unify every advertising channel — search, social, display, video, CTV, DOOH, and retail media — into a single AI-driven platform. The Outmax AI Agent is the execution layer: an AI system that automates campaign creation, audience targeting, creative optimization, and cross-channel budget allocation. In Q1 2026, Outmax expanded to TikTok, and Perion formed an exclusive partnership with McSorely Media and Mediamark to deploy Outmax across Africa.
The revenue rebuild
The numbers tell the story of a company in transition.
2023: $743.2 million — the peak, heavily driven by Microsoft search revenue.
2024: $498.3 million (–33%) — the search cliff after Microsoft's contract changes. The worst single-year revenue decline in Perion's history.
2025: $439.9 million (–12%) — search revenue continued to decline (down 44% to $91 million), but the growth channels accelerated. CTV +42%. DOOH +36%. Retail media +36%. Advertising solutions revenue (ex-search) grew 4% to $348.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2025 rose 63% year-over-year. The company expanded its share repurchase program to $200 million.
Q1 2026: Revenue approximately $88 million. Perion One platform advancing with "encouraging adoption." Outmax AI Agent expanding to new channels and geographies.
Perion in the Israeli ad-tech landscape
Perion sits alongside Taboola (content recommendation), Outbrain (content discovery), and Similarweb (digital intelligence) in the Israeli ad-tech and digital-media cluster on Nasdaq. Where Taboola and Outbrain own the content-recommendation layer, and Similarweb provides the competitive-intelligence data layer, Perion operates across the full advertising execution stack — search, display, video, CTV, DOOH, and retail media.
The Israeli ad-tech cohort shares a common pattern: companies that built category positions in the mid-2010s, went public on Nasdaq, and now face structural transitions as AI, privacy regulation, and platform shifts reshape the advertising ecosystem. Perion's five-life survival record is unusual even by Israeli ad-tech standards — most companies that fail a single business-model transition do not survive to attempt the next one.
Watch points
- Growth-channel velocity — whether CTV, DOOH, and retail media can grow fast enough to offset the continuing search decline and return Perion to top-line growth.
- Outmax AI Agent adoption — whether the AI execution layer drives measurably better campaign ROI and creates a competitive moat against larger ad-tech platforms.
- Search revenue stabilization — whether the $91 million in 2025 search revenue represents a floor or continues to decline.
- Hivestack earn-out — whether DOOH performance hits the $56 million aggregate EBITDA target through 2026.
- Africa and emerging-market expansion — whether the McSorely/Mediamark partnership creates a meaningful new recurring revenue channel.
- Margin trajectory — whether the mix shift from low-margin search to higher-margin DOOH and CTV drives the profitability improvement the Perion One strategy requires.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Perion Network?
Perion Network (Nasdaq: PERI, TASE: PERI) is an Israeli advertising-technology company that provides AI-driven advertising solutions across search, display, video, connected TV, digital out-of-home, and retail media. Founded in 1999 as IncrediMail, rebranded in 2011, headquartered in Holon, Israel.
Who is Perion's CEO?
Tal Jacobson, since August 2023. Previously ran CodeFuel (Perion's search unit) and served as CRO at SimilarWeb. He succeeded Doron Gerstel.
What happened to Perion's revenue?
Perion peaked at $743 million in 2023, then fell 33% to $498 million in 2024 and another 12% to $440 million in 2025 after Microsoft changed the terms of its Bing search partnership. The company is rebuilding around CTV, DOOH, and retail media — all growing 36–42% in 2025.
What is Hivestack?
A Montreal-based programmatic digital out-of-home platform that Perion acquired in December 2023 for $100 million in cash plus up to $25 million in performance payments. Hivestack powers Perion's DOOH advertising stack.
What is Perion One?
Perion's unified AI-native advertising platform that integrates all channels — search, display, video, CTV, DOOH, and retail media — into a single execution layer.
What is Outmax?
Perion's AI Agent technology that automates campaign execution, audience targeting, and cross-channel optimization. Launched on TikTok in Q1 2026. Expanded to Africa through a McSorely Media/Mediamark partnership.
Who founded Perion?
Yaron and Ofer Adler, in 1999, as IncrediMail — a consumer email customization client.
Where is Perion headquartered?
Holon, Israel, with offices in New York.
Primary Sources
- Perion Q1 2026 earnings release (May 20, 2026)
- Perion corporate site (perion.com)
- Perion SEC filings via EDGAR
- TASE filings under PERI
Related Olam Coverage
Israeli Ad-Tech & Digital Media — Nasdaq Cohort
Perion Network · Taboola · Outbrain · Similarweb
See also: Adam Singolda (Taboola founder) · The Olam Nasdaq 20 · The Builders
The Olam Editorial Team
