{"id":47294,"date":"2023-10-20T15:53:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/nine-entertainment-sparks-hopes-of-start-up-spending-spree-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:53:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:53:07","slug":"nine-entertainment-sparks-hopes-of-start-up-spending-spree-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/nine-entertainment-sparks-hopes-of-start-up-spending-spree-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine Entertainment sparks hopes of start-up spending spree – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine Entertainment says it plans to buy into more start-ups following its investment in online shoe retailer StyleTread, fuelling hopes that \u201ctraditional\u201d media companies will increasingly look to snap up emerging online businesses. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Over the past year, Nine has invested in group buying site Cudo and financial management group Yellow Brick Road, and has flagged the launch of an online travel retailing business.<\/p>\n

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Nine chief executive David Gyngell says the company will continue to invest in new businesses and \u201cuse our media assets to build them\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are lots of opportunities to invest in new companies, use Nine and ACP to help build them up, and then trade them. We\u2019re not looking to be long-term holders of most of these companies,\u201d Gyngell says.<\/p>\n

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Media analyst Mark McDonnell says Nine\u2019s plan represents a \u201cvery belated entrance\u201d when compared to the activities of other media companies such as Fairfax Media.<\/p>\n

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For example, Fairfax recently acquired online accommodation booking company Occupancy for an estimated $29.1 million. Occupancy operates Rentahome.com.au and Takeabreak.com.au, both of which list holiday rental properties.<\/p>\n

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Fairfax has said it is keen on transaction sites acquisitions, viewing them as the replacement for its old media classifieds strategy.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Ten Network has run TV advertising for Oasis Active, a dating website it invested in several years ago, and OurDeal, a group-buying site it bought into last year.<\/p>\n

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One media executive told The Australian Financial Review<\/em> that it makes sense for old-media companies to use their assets to build awareness of new-media companies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem the old-media companies are running into is that the prices of online businesses are starting to soar,\u201d the executive said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe owners of any online businesses that appears to have a half decent business model are starting to put silly multiples on their companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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McDonnell says while it is obvious that media companies are attempting to diversify their revenue sources, acquiring or buying into small online businesses carries a degree of risk.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor advertising-supported media, companies can start to look like competitors to some of their key customers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWith TV advertising for example, a lot of retailers make up [a media company\u2019s] customer base for their existing revenue. So if you\u2019re Nine, how do you all of a sudden justify selling shoes?\u201d<\/p>\n

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For start-ups hoping to attract the attention of media companies, McDonnell says they need to be the best in the class.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPart of what an entrepreneur will need to look at is what they\u2019ve actually got on their site, their product range and their audience in order to form a cohesive package,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat may be around having a compelling concept \u2013 [product or service offerings for] someone getting married or having a baby, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nine Entertainment says it plans to buy into more start-ups following its investment in online shoe retailer StyleTread, fuelling hopes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62751,"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\/47294"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}