Fairfax Media has flagged its intention to make digital acquisitions as part of a wider strategy to transform the business from print to digital, despite offloading its 51% stake in Trade Me.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking to The Australian Financial Review<\/i>, Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood outlined aspects of the company\u2019s digital strategy, including small-scale digital acquisitions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, Hywood said \u201cno one should be expecting any huge purchases\u201d, suggesting any acquisitions are likely to be start-ups.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fairfax is in talks with former Microsoft executive Daniel Petre and Alison Deans, who used to run eBay Australia and New Zealand, to advise on new opportunities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The AFR<\/i> said Fairfax intends to acquire Petre and Deans\u2019 technology investment business, netus, for an amount \u201cin the tens of millions of dollars\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the past, Fairfax has said it is keen on transaction site acquisitions, viewing them as the replacement for its old media classifieds strategy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, the company announced yesterday it has executed an underwriting agreement for the sale of 202 million Trade Me shares for gross proceeds of $616 million.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fairfax acquired Trade Me \u2013 a New Zealand-founded auction and classifieds website \u2013 for $NZ750 million in 2006.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Fairfax, the shares are being sold at a price of $3.05 per share. Following completion of the sale, Fairfax will no longer hold any shares in Trade Me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Hywood, Trade Me has been a great business for Fairfax.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe have learned a great deal more about the successful operation of digital businesses over the years since we acquired Trade Me,\u201d Hywood said in a statement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe proceeds from the sale will reduce Fairfax\u2019s net debt and will provide us with a very strong balance sheet and the financial flexibility to invest and to complete the company\u2019s structural transformation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOur decision, at this time, to sell our remaining shareholding in Trade Me in no way reflects on our view of Trade Me\u2019s future.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTrade Me\u2019s strong performance has given rise to an opportunity now to reduce debt and provide greater financial flexibility. We have every confidence in Trade Me\u2019s ongoing strength.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hywood also defended the move in his interview with the AFR<\/i>, stating \u201cjust because you move out of one digital business doesn\u2019t mean the strategy is not intact\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSince when are you supposed to hold assets forever? There are some assets you will trade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other assets the company could sell include digital businesses Domain, RSVP and Stayz.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fairfax Media was contacted by StartupSmart<\/em>, but declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fairfax Media has flagged its intention to make digital acquisitions as part of a wider strategy to transform the business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}