Fuck Me - Trade Me sells for 700 million
Bet Sam Morgan had a great weekend. Fairfax has announced today they are paying $700 million for Trade Me.
Sam Morgan is 29 or possibly 30. Legend has it he began Trade Me when he needed a heater for his flat in Wellington. His Dad is economist Gareth Morgan and that has possibly been helpful. But still...
This is what happens when you have a good idea at the right time and follow it through.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0603/S00078.htm
posted by CB at 3/06/2006 11:58:00 am
19 Comments:
Or when you rename ebay
12:08 pm NZDT
Not quite accurate...
I thinbk you'll find eBay exists in NZ and has for as long time.
TradeMe is a diffferent, much more localised version of the on-line auction model.
What they have done recently with Real Estate and other new features is quite fresh.
If you have used eBay US, you'll find it's not really very user-friendly and quite complicated.
NZ is one a a very few markets in the world in which eBay is not the dominant player.
Sam Morgan is a smart guy. Last I heard they wanted 150 million for it. That was about 6 months ago.
Just FYI
12:35 pm NZDT
It's fucken ebay, with a crappy logo.
But if you need a Firewire cable to connect your PC (not mac) to your camcorder, then please check out my auction.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=49848332
Cheers
2:00 pm NZDT
It doesn't need to get any bigger ie. go abroad. It's a Kiwi success story. Do you have a Trade Me a/c? I have one. So does my wife. My Mother in Law. Everyone I work with. People like Fairfax and it's CEO David Kirk ( remeber him) don't pay 700 lazy mill for something that isn't going to make money for a long time.
But whatever. Just watch the stockmarket response to this.
Back to my on-line share trading....
3:18 pm NZDT
Actually, that's a fucking good idea. It is Monday.
3:31 pm NZDT
Apolgies for the apostophe abuse - leanmeanfighting machine just wound me up. We'll see...
I too am going home for a wank. Or maybe a couple.
Actually, may not awit til I get home.
3:54 pm NZDT
Can't beat a hate-wank on a Monday.
3:58 pm NZDT
I wouldn't get out of bed for $700m.
5:19 pm NZDT
LMFM - Trademe does new things you know it all. Even the NZRFU used it to sell tickets. You can even get a root on these these days.
If they were going to shut it down there would be a fucking big backlash about an aussie company fucking it and someone who has a quick amount of money to spend would go in with a Kiwi angle and clean up again. Would be a no brainer to market.
The real truth about why someone needed to buy it out is because some people have 1000's of good comments about their selling. They would never give that up for another site. It's who they are, it's a badge of honor.
They feel like they king of the Empire. They get the same sense of power that your boss gets when you're sucking him off.
6:24 pm NZDT
LMFM you are emnbarrasssing yourself with your paranoia and lack of futurism.
Maybe time to change identities.
11:50 pm NZDT
I agree with the pervious poster, your high and mighty lectures are embarrassing yourself. My point was that trademe is full of people with absolutely no idea of how business works. Think McDonalds changing the big mac recipe because the Germans now own it. The public couldn't give a monkeys nut how the company is being run, just that the Germans had added bratwhurst to the burger and it was no longer theirs. They know how to run to another site when someone who unlike Sam knows nothing about online trading takes over and upsets them.
Just like when you run crying to the toilet and scrub your tongue with a nail brush after you suck your boss off.
7:50 am NZDT
previous
7:51 am NZDT
After reading page 3 in the NZH I would tend to agree with the last comment.
8:41 am NZDT
i think you are giving LMFM a hard time, his comments stack up with the business section today. Well thereabouts. What the rest on about?
9:03 am NZDT
What they hope to do, and what will happen are entirely different. They may want to get classified ads back in the papers but they can't fight 5 colour photos and a page of copy with a couple of crap abbreviated lines of over priced copy. The only hard time LMFM is getting is when his boss has him bent over the photocopier reaming his hard cock up his pooie.
9:26 am NZDT
Hell it's not an awards show so he doesn't lose points for an unoriginal idea. 700 million reasons to go to the beach for the rest of your life...
9:41 am NZDT
First in, first served. He makes no excuses for nicking the idea.
10:11 am NZDT
It's all been said in a hundred aryciles over several years. he did it it slowly. Did it well. Stuck to his knitting. Innovated. Had balls. Sold at the right time. He also, I should imagine retains a fair degree of control. Just like agency buyouts, only much bigger and more economically interesting. Incidentally, the multiple was about 16.5ish, which is very similar to what top boutiques go for when they sell to the big boys. The smart owners tend to keep in there and make even more dosh. Or get their balls kept in the safe for a long while. Not that I know what I'm talking about...
9:56 pm NZDT
11:26 AM, funny.
3:13 pm NZDT
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