FTSE 100: 6654.34 ▼ -42.45 (-0.63%)
MoneySavingExpert has been sold to price comparison website Moneysupermarket for £87 million, but founder Martin Lewis promises its editorial content will remain unbiased.
MoneySupermarket (MONY.L) will pay £60 million upfront as a mixture of £35 million in cash and around 22.1 million shares, with an additional £27 million paid after three years providing the website meets its targets.
Lewis has pledged to donate £10 million of the money raised through the deal to charity – £1 million of which will go to Citizens Advice, with the rest placed in a Charities Aid Foundation trust while he decides which other charities to help.
Lewis has reassured readers that a strict editorial code has been agreed as part of the sale to ensure the website continues to provide independent information – an important issue as the website is trusted by millions of users as a source of money saving guidance.
Lewis said the two websites will continue to operate as completely separate entities, just part of a bigger group. He added that his journalists will continue to speak freely, be that positively or negatively, about MoneysSupermarket’s services.
Explaining the purpose of the deal, Lewis said: ‘MoneySupermarket is superb at technology and it's an easy-to-use site. Many have said we're a cluttered site, tough to navigate and our search engine ranking isn't the best’.
Peter Plumb, chief executive officer of MoneySupermarket, meanwhile said: ‘We'll help MoneySavingExpert.com reach a wider audience and MoneySavingExpert.com will broaden the range of advice and tools we offer, encouraging even more people to take action, tap into the benefits of the internet to find a better deal and make the most of their money'.
The deal still needs to be approved by the Office of Fair Trading, which is likely to take a few months, and shareholders. Once completed Lewis will become an employee of Moneysupermarket and continue to act as editor-in-chief of MoneySavingExpert for at least three years.
MoneySavingExpert, which will be 10 years old next year, is said to have around 39 million unique visitors and its weekly email is sent to around five million email addresses.
In the year ending October 2011 MoneySavingExpert reported revenues of £15.77 million – up from £11.36 million in 2010. Some 59% of this was made from payments by MoneySupermarket, which is the website’s largest provider of links to product providers mentioned in MoneySavingExpert's editorial content.
David Taylor of the Chelverton UK equity income fund, which is in Citywire Selection, said MoneySupermarket.com was one of three ‘cash machine’ stocks in his fund.
Comments (10)
Cynical? Who me?
12:35 on 01 June 2012
Patrick , more a realist I think !
13:04 on 01 June 2012
Perhaps he'd like to contribute into the Crown Currency Exchange coffers - after all he did recommend them and now all it's clients are left holding a £20 million loss -for some it may only have been just holiday money (which isn't the point), but others have had their dreams of villas or houses abroad shattered - life savings. Your advise Mr Lewis cost some people a lot of money.
14:38 on 01 June 2012
I have found the information provided (I have never seen it as advice) as very useful . It is probably the nearest thing to an unbiased picture you will find anywhere either on the net or in the printed press. And certainly it leaves the tv channels way behind. I hope Martin manages to keep its unbiased approach going. By the way, punters should never rely on one source of information but should combine a few , pick it to bits and make up their own mind.
17:22 on 01 June 2012
Will the site have to give a FEE INCOME on each transaction after 1st January 2013? If not why not. All should be shown,
19:57 on 01 June 2012
Well im flabbergasted I never saw this coming he made a living out of being the peoples champion im not saying I idolised him but i thought what a top bloke then cashes in a massive 87 Million.
I for some reason never saw it as a money making excersice my dad always said never trust anyone.
21:20 on 01 June 2012
DJS.... Your comment is very silly. As an investor you need to do your homework before putting your money on the table. The world is full of people running around with bags of money to invest ... If only they could find someone to give them a risk free investment so if they loose their money it is not their fault.... Just blame the adviser
21:16 on 02 June 2012
Subhash - I think you have misunderstood what Crown Currency Exchange was about - it was promoting itself as a Foreign Exchange company where you simply bought currency forward for delivery at a given date. There was no "investment" element. This company was similar to Travelex, which you see at most UK airports or Global Currency Exchange and Currencies Direct - all give you the ability to buy currency online for collection or delivery at a future date. . The company also claimed to be covered by the FSA - it was actually "Registered" which means nothing in reality. Martin Lewis had this company on one of his suggested lists. MSE received a lot of complaints from people who lost money at the time. ML had nothing to say.
I would agree with your comments if this had of been a "speculative investment".but this was just like you going into a shop - paying cash for something to be delivered which failed to appear. you then find the shop had gone bankrupt and only accepted your money to pay of an earlier creditor (ponzi scheme comes to mind).
08:47 on 03 June 2012
All the "advisory" sites receive good kickback commission for mention or referral. I am told that Crown paid quite a large commission so referral was irresistable to many of these sites who purport to offer good advice but are merely agents touting anybody will to pay commission with little regard for the safety of people who act in good faith when receiving the advice.
18:25 on 03 June 2012
@DJS. He only provided information and it was up to us to make our choices. He has stayed silent on the subject, I assume, because this avoids any slanging matches and whatever he could have said would have displeased people. I call this a dignified silence, unlike some of the slanging matches seen on the Facebook page. I also don't blame him for selling his site.
23:06 on 13 June 2012
Please use a browser with javascript enabled in order to post a comment