Murdoch announces grand entry into online arena, acquires Propertyfinder.com |
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Thu, 03 Nov 2005 23:35
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LONDON - News Corp International, the newspaper group owned by news mogul Rupert Murdoch, has acquired UK classified advertising website Propertyfinder.com in a deal worth £14.3 million ($25.3 million). News Corp owns The Sun and The Times in the UK.
The group is the latest news company to enter the online real estate market. News International wants to turn the portal into the largest property site in the country. The company was partnered in the deal by one of it's subsidiaries, realestate.com.au, an Australian property website. News International owns about 52 percent in the latter.
In April, Murdoch had indicated that his thoughts were turning online since he saw huge advertising revenues in this area, "The threat of losing print advertising dollars to online media is very real.
In fact, its already happening, particularly in classifieds," Murdoch had said in a speech to newspaper editors. Towards this end News Corp has already invested $1.3 billion in online businesses including MySpace.com owner Intermix Media, gaming Web network IGN Entertainment, and online sports company Scout Media.
Under the terms of the current deal, realestate.com.au will have control over Propertyfinder.com. The site itself is a little over a decade old and specializes in listing homes from across the UK. It is the third largest property portal in Britain.
Almost 700,000-property hunters log onto the site each month and 200,000 homes are listed for sale and rent. "We believe that the combined forces of News International and REA will provide the business with a good chance of becoming the leader in the UK market over the next two to three years," said Realestate.com.au chief executive Simon Baker.
Many newspapers have made a beeline to acquire online assets. The Daily Mail purchased job site Zambassy, Trinity Mirror has agreed to buy Hotgroup and Financial Jobs Online, and Emap has taken over online public sector information site DeHavilland.
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