Zoopla acquires Trinity Mirror property sites

September 5, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

zooplapropertyZoopla Property Group has acquired Trinity Mirror Digital Property Limited (TMDP) from Trinity Mirror for £3.3 million. TMDP owns a portfolio of property websites including SmartNewHomes.co.uk, a new homes portal; HomesOverseas.co.uk, a portal dedicated to overseas property listings; Email4Property.co.uk, an estate agent directory and lead generation website and Zoomf.com.

The stand-alone subsidiary, had revenues of £2.9 million and made an operating profit of £0.5 million for the 52 weeks ended 30 December 2012.

In addition to the acquisition of TMDP, Zoopla Property Group and Trinity Mirror are working on a long term commercial agreement whereby ZPG will power the property search for Trinity Mirror’s national and regional newspaper websites.

Zoopla Property Group is the parent company of two major UK property websites – Zoopla.co.uk and PrimeLocation.com and was formed in October 2012 following the merger of Zoopla Ltd and The Digital Property Group. It is a privately held company whose shareholders include A&N Media (a division of the Daily Mail and General Trust), leading venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Octopus Ventures.

Alex Chesterman, Founder & CEO of Zoopla Property Group said, “The acquisition of TMDP is a great strategic fit for ZPG. It allows us to continue to build our portfolio of niche brands in the digital property space like SmartNewHomes, HomesOverseas and PrimeLocation alongside our core national brand Zoopla. The TMDP portfolio of websites further extends our audience and registered user base for the benefit of our members and we will be investing significantly in each of these niche brands to ensure that we continue to be the most effective marketing partner for each of our members.”

UK, London

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Trinity Mirror first half results to June 2013

August 5, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Trinity Mirror has announced its half-yearly financial report for the 26 weeks ended 30 June 2013

Highlights

  • Revenue falls £30.8 million to £332 million (2012: £362.8million)
  • Profit before tax up 2.5% to £49.3 million
  • EPS growth of 5.5% to 15.4 pence – Driven by increased profit before tax and reduced tax rate.
  • Strong cash flows drive further reduction in net debt of £36.7 million
  • Net debt reduced to £120.3 million and on track to repay £54.5 million of maturing debt in October 2013 without the need to draw on the Group’s bank facility.
  • Strong growth in digital audience and digital display advertising
  • Average monthly unique users grew by 36.9% and average monthly page views grew by 48.6% year on year across all publishing operations with digital display revenue growing by 15.1%.

Click on the results table below to enlarge the image

Trinity Mirror 6 mths to Jun13

Commenting on the results, Simon Fox, Chief Executive, Trinity Mirror plc, said, “I am pleased with the progress we have made in the first half. The Group is producing some outstanding journalism and in a challenging market is outperforming its peers on a number of measures in both print and online. Whilst still at an early stage, our transformation plan has got off to an encouraging start and this provides me with confidence in the performance for the year.”

UK, London

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Trinity Mirror acquires email marketing business Communicator Corp for £8 million

January 9, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Trinity Mirror has acquired email marketing business Communicator Corp for £8 million. The company was acquired from a number of shareholders including the Managing Director, Chris Wilds who will be retained in the business. The company reported revenues of £3.5 million and operating profit of £1.0 million in its latest reported accounts to the year ended 31 March 2011 and had gross assets of £1 million. Communicator Corp is based in Sunderland.

This acquisition furthers Trinity Mirror’s aim to build a network of digital marketing services businesses. In 2008 Trinity Mirror acquired Rippleffect, a digital marketing services specialist offering website design and development, e-commerce, social media and on-line advertising. Communicator Corp complements the Rippleffect business by adding email and mobile communications to the services currently offered.

Sly Bailey, CEO Trinity Mirror PLC said: “Increasingly we’re seeing that, in addition to print and website advertising, clients want help in areas such as website design, search engine optimisation, e-mail marketing, social media and web analytics. The addition of Communicator Corp to our stable of digital assets will enhance our offering and complement the digital marketing services currently offered by Rippleffect.

UK, London and Sunderland

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