Recently, the US video platform and cloud service provider Rumble (RUM.O) announced that it is considering acquiring German artificial intelligence cloud company Northern Data (NB2.DE) for about $1.17 billion (1 billion euros). This transaction would allow Rumble to take control of Northern Data's GPU cloud business Taiga and its large-scale data center business Ardent, and plans to integrate these two businesses into its own operations.
According to Rumble's statement, the Taiga cloud unit has a large number of Nvidia GPU chips, with inventory including approximately 20,480 H100s and over 2,000 H200s. Northern Data stated that its board is evaluating Rumble's potential acquisition offer and is willing to discuss further. Rumble's proposed acquisition plan is to offer 2.319 shares of Rumble for each share of Northern Data. According to Reuters' calculation, this proposal is valued at about $18.3 per share, representing a discount of approximately 32% compared to Northern Data's last closing price in Frankfurt.
If this transaction is successfully completed, Northern Data's shareholders are expected to hold approximately 33.3% of Rumble's shares. Notably, Tether, the major shareholder of Northern Data, has expressed support for this transaction. Rumble stated in its statement that the potential acquisition plan also assumes that Northern Data's cryptocurrency mining unit will be divested before the completion of the transaction, with the proceeds used to reduce Tether's existing loan to Northern Data.
After the transaction is completed, Tether is expected to become an important customer of Rumble, committing to purchase GPU products in the coming years. However, both Rumble and Northern Data stated that the current discussions may not necessarily lead to a formal acquisition proposal.
Key Points:
🌐 Rumble is considering acquiring German AI cloud company Northern Data for $1.17 billion.
💼 The transaction would allow Rumble to control Northern Data's cloud business and data centers.
🤝 Tether supports the transaction and may become an important customer of Rumble.