Taboola, a powering recommendations for the open web provider, went public via merger with ION Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, in a $2.6bn deal. Investors providing PIPE financing included Fidelity, Baron Capital, BlackRock, Hedosophia, Federated Hermes Kaufmann Funds and Exor Seeds. "We believe Taboola is an open web recommendation leader that is well positioned to challenge the walled gardens. We were looking to merge with a global technology leader with Israeli DNA and we found that in Taboola. The combination of long-term partnerships built by the company with thousands of open web digital properties, their direct access to advertisers, massive global reach and proven AI technology, allows Taboola to provide significant value to their partners while also achieving attractive unit economics as the company grows," Gilad Shany, ION CEO.