Now what are we to make of this?
The Daily Mail seemed to carry a bit of a give-away on Friday when it reported on its profits forecast for this year.
On the business pages, the paper quoted finance director Stephen Daintith, who “pointed to the acquisition of recruitment website Jobrapido, which together with property sites Zoopla and Prime Location is set to boost revenue in Associated’s consumer digital operations to more than £100m”.
Puzzling. No mention of FindaProperty.
Scratching our heads, EAT put it to Zoopla: Does this mean that the new merged business will have Zoopla as its main website, that FindaProperty will disappear as a brand, but that Primelocation will continue?
Sadly, the response we received makes things no clearer.
A Zoopla spokesman said: “No decisions have been made yet in this regard but we will continue to operate all of the key brands for the foreseeable future.”
However, those of an inquiring mind might like to note that Zoopla has just announced its sponsorship of premier league football club West Bromwich Albion. It is the largest single sponsorship deal in the club’s history, starting on June 1 and running until at least the 2014/2015 season.
The deal means the players will wear Zoopla branded shirts, and the Zoopla name will appear across the stadium, office club merchandise and website, and be featured on interview backdrops for Sky and BBC football coverage.
According to Zoopla: “This latest deal confirms Zoopla’s commitment to becoming the UK’s best known online property brand.”
And according to Adrian Wright, of West Bromwich Albion Football Club: “We have found a fantastic partner in Zoopla and are excited about working with the Zoopla team to help achieve their brand and business objectives over the coming years.”
In short, Zoopla does not look like a brand that has any intention of vanishing. At all.
But perhaps EAT readers should take out a book on it. No doubt they’re doing exactly that at Rightmove – the all-powerful competitor that triggered the merger between Zoopla and the Daily Mail’s portals in the first place.
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Comments
So at £3M with 10k agents signed up in the UK, thats 300 quid each to bring Julio Geordio to the Hawthornes.
Did anyone actually get the Fee CD the MAil offered on Sat? What a con! Got to be suspect of such as a business! Even Blair pointed that out!
Presumably the Cookie monster has been used to track down "In the know"
Obviously what was posted must have been informed enough to warrant it's removal. Can anyone recall the gist of what was said?
Somebody has got very deep pockets and not a lot of sense.
@Keef
oooooossssssshhhhhhhh
I hear Rightmove has signed up as well, but the football club are paying them for the privilege, the players will also have premium shirt upgrades and the ball we be a 'featured' ball that gets seen loads more times on TV but really does F all else!!
The post being removed says it all.
@strange a post that was removed from a DMGT employee that claimed to know stuff!
Down market agent and site, good fit. rightmove would not sink so low.
Property Cat, what posts are you aiming at???
@Donnie - Funny!
That will be two Zoopla Arenas then which have a unique average attendance/Audience of about 25,000.
Youre right about the exposure though, its not a bad move from them.
@marketeer......If zoopla continue to advertise on tv and spread their name via things like premier league they will become more popular with the house buying public.Agents will not fear leaving Rightmove as the vendors will only require us to be on one or other.That makes a price war a reality.
@ric... I have just heard from a mate who is a WBA season ticket holder .They have just said on a local radio show that (following Newcastle and others) there is a re naming of the stadium as part of the deal from the hawthorns to "The Zoopla Arena"....
Rightmove's comeback will be to Sponsor the actual Premier League.
Cant wait to see what Zoopla's "price predictions" for WBA next year..........perhaps they will also predict some future player values of the West Brom team.
**Zoopla breaking news: Peter Odemwingie worth £171,039 - Shane Long worth £58,000,439.
**Zoopla breaking news: WBA The Hawthorns Ground up for sale at £65,750, do you want your football ground advertising here, contact your local Zoopla Agent.
@intheknow censored?
@james there will be no price war. The Agents are all too scared to leave Rightmove.
@Intheknow - you are so far from intheknow that i guess that is why you are on here not doing your job. I doubt you either work for Daily Mail or have ever met Alex Chesterman.
Having read some of your previosu posts, it is clear that you simply like to waste time speculating about things you know nothing about instead of waiting to see what happens. perhaps you should change the name of your postings to @iknownothingbutwanttopretendido.
Interesting story. Zoopla may not have 'leaked' anything but why would it sign up to a three year premiership deal unless it wanted to splash its name everywhere? I also suspect that suggestions that it will put up prices are wide of the mark. Any business trying to knock out its opposition will start a price war first.
Do you really think Zoopla would leak that kind of info this far in advance? I doubt it!!