J2 Global Bought 24 Companies Last Year

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Cloud services company J2 Global Inc. of Hollywood gobbled up four more companies in the fourth quarter, bring the total number of companies it acquired last year to 24.

J2 announced today that it purchased Australian website hosting company Ausweb, discount e-retailer Offers.com of Austin, British cloud storage company Backup and email security company MX Toolbox of Austin.

J2 Global provides cloud services such as Internet fax, email marketing, data storage and backup. It also owns several media firms such as video game media company IGN Entertainment Inc. and men’s lifestyle website AskMen.

“J2’s M&A program ended 2015 on a very high note,” j2 Chief Executive Hemi Zucker said in a statement. “We are committed to drive growth globally, in part through acquisition, and completed twenty-four acquisitions in 2015 with that objective in mind.”

J2’s acquisitions are aimed at bringing together a fragmented industry of independent cloud storage and Internet-service companies under one roof. Buying up smaller companies has been a cost-effective method for acquiring customers, Zucker said in an October interview with the Business Journal.

“Some companies are very small and we have developed a program of acquiring them without ever meeting,” he said. J2 has become quite efficient at identifying, purchasing and integrating companies, he added.

Growing through bit-sized acquisitions has proved a successful strategy for J2. The company’s revenue has surged from $371 million in 2012 to $599 million in 2014, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And the company’s share price has steadily risen from a low of about $24 a share in 2012 to close at $75.81 a share on the Nasdaq today.

Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.

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