After Facing ‘Tough Operating Conditions,’ Jasper Commerce Sells Operations to Digital Commerce Payments

Calgary-based FinTech Digital Commerce Payments (DCPayments) has acquired the operations of Toronto-based product information management (PIM) company Jasper Commerce.

Under the agreement, Jasper’s subsidiary, Jasper Interactive Studios Inc. (JISI), sold all of its assets to DCPayments for a maximum consideration of $1.5 million, as the agreement includes a profit on revenues for a period of three years from the closing of the transaction.

DCPayments aims to grow to become a “one-stop shop for businesses” looking to move their business online or expand their online offerings.

PIM encompasses the processes and systems used to effectively manage and maintain product data. It involves collecting, storing, and organizing all information related to a company’s products to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date across all channels.

Jasper Commerce has developed a tool that helps merchants organize their inventory data and sync that data with e-commerce platforms.

One such platform is Shopify, and Jasper claims to be a Shopify Plus partner on its website. The company was founded in 2010, and its clients over the years have included brands like Skullcandy, Samsonite, and Yeti Cycles.

DCPayments, founded in 2007, offers digital payment solutions including integrated payments, card services and digital wallets for Canadian businesses. The acquisition will add Jasper’s PIM capabilities to DCPayments’ core payments business.

In a statement, DCPayments said it intends to grow both organically and through acquisition to become “a one-stop shop for businesses looking to move their business online or expand their online offerings.”

“The acquisition of Jasper’s (PIM) assets underscores our strategy to increasingly move up the payments value chain by adding additional software that enables companies to build better online products and get them to market faster,” Pamela Draper, president of DCPayments, said in a LinkedIn post last week.

Jasper’s decision to sell its operations comes after a period of financial difficulty that the company described as a “challenging operating environment” in a June statement. In December 2022, Jasper, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol JPIM, embarked on a “transformation plan” aimed at reducing operating costs and increasing revenue.

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Since then, the company has experienced multiple leadership changes. Gerry Hurlow resigned as CEO in November 2023, and Sean Coutts served as interim CEO until CFO Ken Gutierrez took over the interim role later that month. Gutierrez left his position at Jasper in April 2024, as did board chairman Jeff Klam.

The TSXV suspended trading in Jasper shares in April 2024, given the company’s plans to sell its PIM business. In its June statement, Jasper said the decision to sell the PIM business followed a review conducted over several months that initially focused on the organizational changes Jasper could make to continue as a going concern. Jasper said it was “unable to achieve its goals in this regard” and “was forced to explore other strategic alternatives.”

“We are confident that (DCPayments) is a company well-positioned to continue to provide excellent service to our customers and to continue to operate our excellent PIM platform,” Mag Saad, chairman of Jasper’s board of directors, said in a statement.

Jasper will remain a reporting issuer in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, but currently has “no active business activities or assets other than its equity interest in JISI,” as well as rights to receive future acquisition payments, according to a statement from DCPayments.

Jasper isn’t the only public Canadian tech company struggling this year. A growing number of companies have sought to go private in recent months, including Nuvei, MDF Commerce, TrueContext, Q4 Inc., BBTV Holdings and Dialogue Health Technologies.

Main photo courtesy of Reveal. Photo by CardMapr.nl.