Agora acquired Netless, a transaction completed in November 2020, structured as combination (cash plus share-based awards to Netless employees who joined the company).
Netless operates in Real-time engagement / interactive whiteboard, is based in China. On November 27, 2020, shortly after its Nasdaq IPO, Agora acquired 100% of the equity of Netless, a provider of real-time interactive whiteboard technology. The deal added roughly US$0.2 million of developed technology (amortized over five years) and US$3.1 million of goodwill; total consideration, split between cash and share-based awards to Netless staff who joined Agora, was not separately disclosed.
The acquisition extended Agora’s core real-time engagement platform with an adjacent interactive-whiteboard capability, and Agora attributed the resulting goodwill to expected synergies with its existing voice and video APIs.
Interactive whiteboarding is a natural companion to real-time voice and video in online education and collaboration use cases. Expected synergies with Agora’s real-time engagement platform (per the goodwill attribution in the 20-F). Folded into Agora’s real-time engagement product portfolio.
Advisory firms were not disclosed for this transaction.