B2C Digital. The sale of Zoopla will land the UK’s £1.5bn-revenue Daily Mail group DMGT with a £642m windfall for cashing out of online property portals. This may yet flush out a counter-bid with Axel Springer looking like a potential alternative. The US private equity firm SilverLake had earlier this year acquired EDR from DMGT, with the provider of real estate date and software priced at $205m. Having successfully earlier sold out of jobs classifieds and reduced its holdings in Euromoney – all fruits of a successful history as a portfolio investor – DMGT has given up trying to sell Metro, its past-the-peak free daily. But when will the cashed-up news group stop selling and start buying? That’s, of course, when the high prices will bite back. DMGT is thought to have been an under-bidder both for the £300m Ascential UK exhibitions, just won by ITE, and for the $300m US-based PennWell B2B group acquired recently by Clarion. Could it next do something audacious and bid for one or two UK public companies: the tech-savvy B2C Future? Or the expansive B2B Wilmington, chaired by Martin Morgan, DMGT’s former CEO? DMGT could buy both and still get change from the Zoopla pay-out.
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UK’s Zoopla, PrimeLocation bought by SilverLake for $3bn
