Fairfax have sold Trademe

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Batman

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#733290 16-Dec-2012 21:51

china or russia?

definitely not a kiwi who can afford that much!

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#733332 17-Dec-2012 06:02

joker97: china or russia?

definitely not a kiwi who can afford that much!

There are plenty of Kiwi institutional investors who could easily afford such a purchase.

In this case however word is Australian's have purchased the bulk.

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#733368 17-Dec-2012 09:15

The sale is confirmed by Fairfax, Trade Me share trading halted:

Fairfax Media has confirmed it is selling its 51 per cent stake in online auction house Trade Me.In a statement to the stock exchange this morning, Trade Me said it had been advised that Fairfax Digital Holdings NZ Limited had entered into an agreement with an investment bank - understood to be UBS - for the sale of its remaining stake.

Trade Me said it understood that the book build for the sale was continuing. Its shares had been put in a trading halt here and across the Tasman.

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#733569 17-Dec-2012 13:37

sleemanj:
richms: about to roll their own or something perhaps?

They are not THAT stupid.

There is an article on Stuff saying Fairfax have hired key ebay people. My guess is building something new around their existing web presence. Going head to head with trademe would be silly - so either it is a different strategic direction or another bland failed revolution from traditional media. It really is sad few news organisations have a productive strategic direction towards getting both feet on the ground in the digital era.

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#733616 17-Dec-2012 14:29

the sale on trademe is much slower than before. i think it will go down someday. i don't think kiwi bought it.

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#733617 17-Dec-2012 14:31

treee: the sale on trademe is much slower than before. i think it will go down someday. i don't think kiwi bought it.

Welcome to Geekzone.

What do you mean by "slower than before"? Before what? What will go down? Trade Me or the sale? Why don't you think kiwis bought it?

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#733620 17-Dec-2012 14:33

I would have thought there would have been a restraint of trade to prevent that happening.

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#733623 17-Dec-2012 14:37

treee: the sale on trademe is much slower than before. i think it will go down someday. i don't think kiwi bought it.

What are you comparing the speed of the sale to? It has only been sold once before, 7 years after its inception. This sale is occurring 6 years after the last sale. That's much faster.

Go down? In what way? Offline for technical faults? Or business winding up? Why do you think that?

Kiwi is a descriptive term for New Zealanders and residents, and others, who identify as kiwis, not a singular bloke. The news articles clearly state that NZ buyers will be getting quite a small stake.

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#735639 20-Dec-2012 16:57

richms: Unless they have learned all they need to and are not happy with where trademe is going - about to roll their own or something perhaps?

Would be a silly idea for them to create their own competitor to TradeMe, a surefire way to waste a lot of money very quickly.

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#735669 20-Dec-2012 18:02

I can't see this ending well for Fairfax. Their print media business is dead and dragging them down. Wile they are now debt free I doubt they have much cash to use to try and invest in new areas.

Speculation was the sale was because their lenders were getting uncomfortable, which means sourcing new debt to fund any potential new business models could be very challenging.

The whole media & journalism space needs to reinvest itself, but that is going to take time and money - and I doubt Fairfax has too much of either.

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#735672 20-Dec-2012 18:14

Fairfax will be looking to leverage it's classified and display business online. A big challenge and not a great job so far anywhere in the world. On a tangent, the recent new capital in Fairfax is likely to exert pressure to run the business on the Murdoch model.

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