Stephanie Prange

February 13, 2023

Home entertainment distributor Alliance Entertainment Holding Corp. has completed its merger with Adara Acquisition Corp.

The business combination was approved at a meeting of Adara’s shareholders on Jan. 18, 2023.

Alliance Entertainment (which is the parent of Mill Creek Entertainment and Distribution Solutions) distributes music, movies, consumer electronics, compact discs, collectibles, vinyl LP records, DVDs, Blu-rays and video games.

Beginning Feb. 13, 2023, Alliance Entertainment’s shares and warrants will be quoted on the OTC under the ticker symbols “ADRA” and “ADRA WS,” respectively. Concurrent with Alliance Entertainment’s OTC quotation, Adara Acquisition Corp. has been delisted from the NYSE American. Alliance Entertainment also intends to seek to list on the Nasdaq Capital Market, according to a press release.

Chairman Bruce Ogilvie and CEO Jeff Walker will continue to lead the combined company, along with its current management team.

This transaction values Alliance Entertainment at approximately $480 million. As a public company, Alliance expects to be able to make further investment in growth, including automating facilities, upgrading proprietary software. Management believes the transaction also positions the company “to drive inorganic growth through a roll-up strategy of acquiring and integrating competitors and complementary businesses,” according to the release.

“We believe that today’s milestone combined with our strong revenue growth, expanding customer base and product offering, and several successful acquisitions, will help accelerate our future expansion initiatives,” Jeff Walker, CEO of Alliance Entertainment, said in a statement. “Alliance Entertainment today is well positioned to continue to capitalize on shifts towards e-commerce and omni-channel strategies, especially with retailers and manufacturers vastly increased reliance on their DTC (direct to consumer) fulfillment and distribution partners. We are at an inflection point that now positions us to execute a multi-prong growth strategy that we expect will deliver a double-digit revenue growth rate with strong cash generation to the bottom line.”

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“This business combination will further enable our significant focus on a strategic roll-up strategy of acquiring and integrating competitors and complementary businesses which we believe will drive an accelerated competitive position and value creation,” Bruce Ogilvie, chairman of Alliance Entertainment, said in a statement. “Combined with further investment including automating facilities and upgrading proprietary software, we are confident we can grow revenue and expand margins. In this next phase of our development, we expect to see growth from enhancing our DTC relationships to grow existing revenue lines and improving capabilities which will generate a more attractive overall service offering. We will also continue to expand into new consumer product segments, growing our product offering and providing more to our existing customer base while attracting new customers in the process.”

“We congratulate Alliance Entertainment on today’s accomplishment and look forward to their continued evolution as a leading DTC and eCommerce provider for the entertainment industry,” Tom Finke, CEO and chairman of Adara Acquisition Corp., said in a statement. “We are confident Alliance Entertainment will provide shareholders with a diversified investment alternative as one of the largest physical media and entertainment product distributors in the world. We believe their expanding use of automation technology to further impact efficiency, cost and capacity for future growth will deliver long-term value. We look forward to collaborating with Alliance Entertainment as they strategically position the company to achieve its growth objectives.”