The owners of the Guardian have hoisted a For Sale sign above their estate agency software business, GMG Property Services.
There is speculation that the business, which includes Vebra and Core, could sell to one of the property portals or to an existing software competitor.
An auction for the business, the biggest supplier of estate agency IT in the country, is scheduled for next month.
The disposal is intended to raise money for the Guardian and Observer titles, both of which have been struggling, burning through £63m last year. Despite such heavy losses, the Guardian Media Group still had cash of £226m, including a £100m dividend from its 50.1% stake in Trader Media Group, which publishes Autotrader.
In January this year, the newspaper group refused a £300m offer for its stake in Trader Media Group, of which ex-Rightmove boss Ed Williams is a non-executive director, apparently wanting more money for its most successful asset.
GMG Property Services is not in the same league, but has nevertheless continued to turn in a highly successful performance.
GMG Property Services had revenues of £9.6m in its last accounts, for the year to March 2012, turning in a profit of £1.4m. The business is valued at £14m by the Guardian Media Group itself.
GMG Property Services was formed in 2007. Vebra and its then stablemate Thinkproperty were bought by the Guardian a year earlier, originally as part of Trader Media, but were retained following the sale of 49.9% of the Guardian’s stake. Shortly after GMG Property Services was created, Core was acquired.
The acquisition meant that between them, Core and Vebra at that time had 22% share of the market, with 4,000 estate agency customers. The group also includes CFPwinman, for letting agents.
Thinkproperty was sold on by GMG Property Services, to be an early acquisition by Zoopla.
GMG Property Services has kept a low media profile of late, and does not appear to have kept its own website up to date: on its news section, the newest story is dated April of last year. The company has offices in Luton, Wolverhampton, and Redruth, Cornwall.
The business is headed by Mark Goddard, who was previously with Trader Media.
.jpg)
Comments
that is the problem of only having a small box to type into.
@Ros Renshaw, please accept my apologies, obviously someone thought my post yesterday was not to there liking.
What I can't work out is what I said that would cause so much discomfort or which posting rule I infringed.
Perhaps it was the reference to the Toilet tissue advert where a whole bunch of sycophants run around after boss whose understanding of the business really is limited to tress being a great place for birds to sit. That irreverence came from one of the members of the exec just before they went out into the garden and never came back.
Perhaps it was the reply to Jonathon’s post blaming the directors that caused to problem. There is a very strong regret by some of the directors that while selling to GMG was financially rewarding for a few, the justification for selling; security for the staff and the investment, were simply spin and myth. Claims that there would be no redundancies were statements meant to reassure staff but which were so obviously promises which would be broken, as events have proven.
It probably is bad manners to point out the incompetent way this sale is being handled, but if we are being expected to believe that 1 month is enough time to contact GMG, get details of the sale, appoint accountants and solicitors and carry out proper due diligence and assess if £14,000,000 is realistic someone really is very naive. These things do take months.
I can understand why someone wouldn’t like my cynical conclusion that they have found a buyer but someone thinks they should be getting more for the asset. However given the content of the main story that is an obvious repetition of Ed Williams wanting more for trader than was being offered
I don’t suppose Mark Goddard would have liked anyone to point out that GMGPS was his project and its success or failure was a reflection on his leadership. I am sorry if that caused offence but I have noticed there is always a long queue to take credit but a very much shorter queue to take responsibility. This wouldn’t be a great chapter in anyone’s CV but what is done is done and what has or hasn’t been achieved can not be altered now.
There is no doubt that news of this sale seemed to catch everyone out, a small article in the Sunday papers on the Whitsun bank holiday was probably meant to go un-noticed. Certainly the staff weren’t given the heads up, which really is inexcusable on behalf of whoever released the story to the press. The Executives who have to manage this sale probably did not need the added pressure of more change management. They certainly don’t need to be trying to control posts on EAT where it is inevitable that every competitor and every resentful member of staff has a right to comment.As the saying goes, don’t kick people on your way up, they might return the favour as you fall back down.
http://www.propertydrum.com/articles/gmgproperty
by the 15th of July 2009 the Sale to Zoopla was complete.
It seems staff have now been told that GMGPS is not for sale.
What happened to the Frome and Pocklington Offices, both seem to be missing from the list of Offices?
the only reason the GMG PSG bought vebra , core , GMW and all the other software companies was to fund the newspaper as newspaper was operating at a loss each year and needed the GMG PSG to fund that , they didnt care about the core values , or customer service i feel for the staff there who are loyal and to the customers aswell. the products are great but the support is rubbish as they dont have enough staff to meet the demand , all down to MG with his routhless decision's and it has cost the company
wwhhoops ... were
Type in haste, repent forever!
its a shame really I have worked there before and it was a nice company before the greed of the directors , not putting customers first , not having enough staff to cope with the pressure on the help desk, and making people redundant , poor management from the directors and pure greed I say !
Well im very surprised they lasted this long, greed and poor management were sure to be the downfall of this company. Having rid the company of the people with the knowledge and that cared about the customers and made it was it was before the corporate takeover was sure to have a dramatic effect. Little G was never going to succeed in that venture everyone new that!
"the biggest supplier of estate agency IT in the country"
made me think of
'Size is no guarantee of quality, Baldrick. Most horses are very well endowed, but that does not necessarily make them sensitive lovers. '
Just checked you out on companies house / experian and judging by the state of your finances I am surprised you managed to complete the EAT spam question of 10+4 = correctly.
Would advise anyone handing over money to any company who is selling a service to ensure you do your background checks on their financial well being!
Does anyone have details of the auction please?
Is anyone really paying bu2iness £99+vat per month? That's alot of money. Is it any good?
put some facts to you claims more than 66% is how many customers? 66% of ten is a high percentage but a low figure in terms of numbers.
same with 80% 8 customers doesn't mean you have a viable business.
(pity you weren't around early enough to get the URL you wanted!)
VALUE
“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it is unwise to pay too little.
When you pay too much you lose a little money, that is all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the
thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.
It can’t be done.
If you deal with the lowest bidder, it’s well to add something for the risk you run.
And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”
John Ruskin 1819 - 1900
There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey.
John Ruskin, (attributed)
English critic, essayist, & reformer (1819 - 1900)
Was at an agency event a year ago and the Vebra sales guys were laughing at agents they'd signed up for higher fees than they needed.
The impression was that they had charged the agents more than they needed to.
Bars at between exhibition events are not a good place to broadcast taking the pee out of agents who need software services. Dog + bite + hand that feeds you comes to thought.
The one bloke I can think of who would buy this hasn't got the money.
Robert May was undoubtedly the driving force behind CFP Software and he has been quietly looking for a backer to help him buy back the company that he was so influential in building. He resigned 3 years ago and predicted this as an outcome.
If anyone is interested in buying GMGPS they would be well advised at least talk to the one person who knows how this firm works and how/if it can be rebuilt.
Robert is known to be working on what he describes as Generation 5 and has described how the generation 3 and 4 software firms like GMGPS fit into the next phase of technology for Estate Agency.
GEOFF, I disagree, we have been using estateagent.me and its so simple to use, we did purchase Universal but it was too complex, admittedly it is great software but since using this new site we find we are using it for day to day stuff as its so simple.
Here is the perfect example of poor corporate mis-management of the very worse order.
Solex/Vebra was a good firm who led the industry with fantastic marketing solutions.
Core Systems, two genuinely nice blokes who built a business on dedication and commitment.
CFP Software the engine that powered the expansion of buy to let.
How can one man destroy so much that was good and respected by the entire industry, customers and competitors alike?
Despite the hype this will not be a fevered auction with multiple bidders, this is more akin to the last half hour of a car boot sale where only the chipped plates and tatty Teddies are left. The Guardian mother ship draining it of all investment cash for 5 years have robbed this of any opportunity value, there is very little goodwill to buy the customer base is diminishing by the month and the software is simply dated.
A very sad day, but it has been on the cards for 4 years!
Why would anyone buy this failing business full of legacy when they are being hammered by all the other software providers?
There is only 1 REALLY GOOD softwear for Estate Agents worth having Universal by Thesaurus Technology, superb system and fantastic support. FACT
I expect only the portals could afford it, I dont see the point in the top portals purchasing it, they could copy it easily, why waste the money? They probably already have all the agents anyway.