Globrix is to become part of the Daily Mail’s Digital Property Group, becoming part of the same stable as FindaProperty and PrimeLocation.
Just weeks after The Times shed their interest in Globrix, the Daily Mail group – through its digital publishing arm AND – has now bought a 50% stake in the site and has said it will make “significant” investment in its new acquisition.
Globrix founder Dan Lee is stepping down as chief executive and will run a software enterprise in which AND has also invested.
The acquisition astonished staff at Digital – who had no idea it was a possibility – and has surprised others, including its competitors, who do not understand how a free offering can tie in with charging models.
When The Times cut its stake in Globrix, Lee said he was delighted with the management buy-out, which was announced in early December. He also said at the time that Globrix would continue to power the property search functions for both The Sun and The Times. Whether the Daily Mail group will be happy with this arrangement remains to be seen.
The new deal means that the combined traffic of the Digital sites is now 2.5m (Comscore’s figure for November), closing the gap with Rightmove which had 2.9m visitors for the same month.
A spokesman for Digital said there was only a 12% crossover in traffic between the group’s existing sites and Globrix.
Mark Milner, chief executive for Digital, said: “It is important that I immediately stress that Globrix will remain a free-to-list portal.
“The addition of Globrix to the Digital network is indicative of our desire to offer agents and consumers a compelling proposition. Together, we will have the most complete inventory in the market and continue our drive to offer consumers, estate agents and developers a unique solution.
“It will also help us towards our ambition of having a relationship with every agent in the land.
“Importantly, those Digital customers not currently feeding to Globrix can also now access this additional channel.”
Globrix launched in 2008. The price AND paid for its 50% stake has not been disclosed.
Comments
If you read between the lines of their PR release for this deal you'll see that this is a technology play, DMGT need a unifying search technology to bring all their classifieds assets into one index so that they can delivered a consistemt user experience for their hyperlocal offering local people amongst other things. Imagine it went for a song as well
When was the last time you heard someone say they looked for a house on Globrix? The general public have never heard of it, despite its clever technology. No wonder it's on its way out. Valueless. Rightmove still has it sewn up. Google is the only threat. This is a non-story.
Ben R - I disagree with Mark and personally think you are right. Google may now look to buy the number 2 free-to-list portal Mouseprice.
Great news from TDPG, but I beg them to please CONSOLIDATE THE BRANDS! it is a mess at the moment with so much customer confusion, much better from an SEO perspective to have one domain as well. Look at what Zoopla did.
Erm! I guess (Mark) you didn't see the press today then. Perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss another person's comments unless you can be certain you are correct. To much of that behaviour going on on this site from people with a vested interest in one portal or another. see www dot globaledge.co.uk/news/google-to-buy-two-property-sites-a-month-37361
Ben R, absolute nonsense and categorically not the case that Google are going to be buying portals
Propertylive is a good idea if it can be properly stocked and promoted - do they yet offer members window stickers to promote it to the public?
Aha! Looks like the first of the panic buys from larger portals looking to take Google acquisition targets off the market. Google has announced it is to go on a shopping spree to bolster its up-and-coming property portal offering. Hence the most likely reason why TDPG wanted to take Globrix (one of the best free to list portals) out of the running for Google's wishlist.
And yet property live is a really poor site and offers precious little that the top sites do. Wihout the critical mass of properties on there it's stuck between a rock and a hard place
Trevor Kent:
You are so right! I have been saying and writing the same for months.
Rightmove has had millions of pounds of free advertising by their contributing agents - this on top of the fees paid to Rightmove. It's a 'no brainer'!
With all these unsettling shenanigans in both the free and paid-for portal offerings, now is the time for NAEA and ARLA members to really stand up and take notice of their PROPERTYLIVE option. It really is improving now and if we agents just put half as much effort into marketing it now as we did in the early days of
that 'other site' it could become a serious contender. Most importantly it is OURS,
WE OWN IT, WE RUN IT, AND ONLY NAEA & ARLA MEMBERS ARE ON IT! Big T
What utter madness. It is clear that Globrix was always going to struggle as they have no revenue stream and we all know display is just not workings online. Feels like TDPG has knee kerked to stop another Zoopla acquisition and to replace traffic lost from the Evening Standard demerger of homes and property.com
TDPG have never properly integrated the current hotpotch of portals it owns so Globrix stands no chance. The value of this deal is not in the product - it is more in the cash needed to keep it going. I sense we will soon see the removal of Globrix brand from the market. It is only TDPG silly enought to pay to remove a competitor which was doing pretty well to acheiving an exit from the UK portal market on their own.