In February of this year, it was definitively announced that A-Mark had agreed to acquire JM Bullion Inc., an e-commerce retailer of precious metals. This acquisition comes after a longstanding relationship between the two companies.
With this acquisition A-Mark, a precious metals manufacturer, and JM Bullion, a precious metals retail corporation, look to combine and fully integrate the two chains of business under one umbrella.
A-Mark & JM Bullion
US-based precious metals trading firm, A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc., is a fully integrated precious metals platform that specializes in wholesale gold, silver, and platinum to industrial consumers, and jewelers. Its multi-national customer base includes sovereign and private mints, investors, collectors, financial institutions, retailers, and refiners.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, JMB is a leading e-commerce retailer providing access to a wide variety of gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium products through its company-owned websites and marketplaces.
Before the acquisition was announced A-Mark and JMB had a working relationship and were partial investors owning about 25% of JMB as investors.
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The acquisition
This deal comes years after A-Mark first dipped its toe in the waters of financial investment when it first made a minority investment in JMB back in 2014. From then until now, the two companies have enjoyed a mutually beneficial and long-standing relationship.
The terms of the acquisition include a purchase price of $138.3 million for the 79.5% of JMB it does not currently own that A-Mark agreed to pay to take full ownership of JMB. The purchase was financed through a combination of A-Mark’s cash on hand and from net proceeds from A-Mark’s public offering of common stock in early March.
The acquisition was finalized late in the first quarter of 2021, signaling A-Mark’s foray into a fully integrated precious metals platform.
Board of directors appointments
This acquisition involved several significant board of directors appointments, securing talent with backgrounds in cryptocurrency, iGaming, and technology. These include Michael Wittmeyer, Kendall Saville, and Monique Sanchez.
Michael Wittmeyer, JMB’s chief executive and co-founder, and JMB Chairman Kendall Saville will join A-Mark’s board of directors, along with technology executive Monique Sanchez, who previously held positions at Google and DoubleClick, which was acquired by Google in 2008.
Mr. Saville had previously served as Chairman of JM Bullion Inc. for seven years and prior to that, co-founded PlayUSA, an iGaming media network that was acquired by Catena Media. Additionally, he served as a consultant to Catena Media for three years, from 2016 to 2019.
Mr. Saville is currently the CEO of Ocean View Marketing and i15 Media, an iGaming marketing company. PlayUSA is a portal that makes its money by reviewing US online casinos and then earning commissions from visitors who decide to sign up at recommended casinos.
Announcements and press releases for the A-Mark acquisition were streamed for their investors, and the recordings can be found on A-Mark’s website.
The platform
With this acquisition, A-Mark expands its retail-facing influence with JMB’s several different outlets. JMB currently operates five separate online platforms that serve various niche markets in the precious metals sphere. JMBullion.com, ProvidentMetals.com, Silver.com, GoldPrice.org, SilverPrice.org.
In addition to each uniquely branded outlet, JMB also maintains a strong eBay presence as well. These five outlets will serve to boost A-Marks presence within the market by giving A-Mark precious metals a direct line to consumers. This is a highly synergistic acquisition for a precious metals wholesaler.
A-Mark now has the capacity for wholesale for industrial and commercial uses while having the retail outlets available to reach consumers directly. A-Mark is set to grow with this fully integrated platform of wholesale & direct to consumer approach.
A-Mark typically operates out of the southwest, in California and Nevada, whereas JMB is headquartered in Texas. This acquisition allows an expansion point for A-Mark to open up the east coast markets as well.
As with many other industries, brick and mortar stores and outlets started to suffer in growth due to the increasing normalcy of digital shopping. This is doubly so for a post-Covid world. JMB brings its well-established online platforms opening A-Mark to new clients all over the country and the world.
Looking forward
Once the acquisition is finalized it’ll be interesting to see how smoothly integration will go, and how the various platforms will change under the new management. Although they’ve worked together for several years now, any large acquisition will have growing pains as the two companies fall under one management.
This acquisition seems to spell success in the next stages of A-Mark’s corporate existence. The addition of strong talent and perspectives on the board of directors along with the current technology on both sides of the deal likely means an outlook of growth and profitability following the close of the deal late in the first quarter of 2021.
