Money Saving Expert Sold

retired_member34 · Jun 1, 2012

Announced this morning, Martin Lewis has sold MSE to Moneysupermarket for £87M.

I've long thought he delisted his company and operated as a sole trader as he didn't want his disciples to see just how much money he was making, but it has now been declared. In the year to Oct 2011 it made £12.6m earnings before tax.

Edwin · Jun 1, 2012

Made much less than I expected (it's a fantastic number but considering the markets its in and the site's popularity...)

Blossom · Jun 1, 2012

Wow, didn't think he'd ever sell that since it's so closely tied to his personal self/'brand'.

dashu1 · Jun 1, 2012

So it is possible to monetize a forum after all.

Nice really for him since 99% of the content (and the pull of the site) has been added by the public.

Edwin · Jun 1, 2012

Basically right on 7x EBITDA

Blossom · Jun 1, 2012

dashu1 said:
So it is possible to monetize a forum after all.

Nice really for him since 99% of the content (and the pull of the site) has been added by the public.

Well...I imagine a lot of the money is made via the newsletter, and a fair amount of the actually useful content is guides and stuff written by staff. And he has done a hell of a lot in terms of promoting it, especially since 2008.

The forum is huge though, and I guess it's the main draw for a lot of people.

retired_member34 · Jun 1, 2012

Blossom said:
Well...I imagine a lot of the money is made via the newsletter, and a fair amount of the actually useful content is guides and stuff written by staff. And he has done a hell of a lot in terms of promoting it, especially since 2008.

The forum is huge though, and I guess it's the main draw for a lot of people.

The forum, amongst other things, gave the site sufficient authority to rank feature (affiliate) pages for just about every financial product going, especially for "cheap" type searches.

namdas · Jun 1, 2012

I expect the forum acts as a huge draw for traffic and links and likely doesn't make much money alone - but of course the links and other signals it generates have equated to great rankings for the guides which make the most revenue

vizzo · Jun 1, 2012

Be interesting to see how MSE develops. Will it maintain its current angle ( consumer focused) or just be a selling tool for moneysupermarket.

Also will be interested to see what Lewis does next!

retired_member27 · Jun 1, 2012

Hopefully they will finally get rid of his smug face plastered all over the website.

dashu1 · Jun 1, 2012

He's staying on as editor in chief and it will supposedly maintain it's current consumer based format.

LoL

dashu1 · Jun 1, 2012

apd said:
Hopefully they will finally get rid of his smug face plastered all over the website.

He'll look even smugger now!

Blossom · Jun 1, 2012

I really admire the concept, growth, monetisation, promotion etc., but the design has always been awful.

I thought the last design refresh was going to be great but it just looks like an out-of-the-box template now, although admittedly it's a bit slicker than previously.

domainseller200 · Jun 1, 2012

Not sure why so many people are criticising the sale, Martin has done in spectacular style, what the vast majority of us dream about and aim for.

£100 + 10 years of passion to create an £87m selllout. Surely as online entrepreneurs, we should be congratulating him and not slating him - I for one think it is awesome news and regardless of how 'smug' people might think he looks, I commend him on every level - well done Martin Lewis !

retired_member34 · Jun 1, 2012

domainseller200 said:
Martin has done in spectacular style, what the vast majority of us dream about and aim for.

Absolutely. MSE gave one of my sites 150k visitors over 4 years, which converted well - at no cost.

foz · Jun 1, 2012

domainseller200 said:
Not sure why so many people are criticising the sale, Martin has done in spectacular style, what the vast majority of us dream about and aim for.

A par for the course - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome