Simon Baker the former CEO and Managing Director of the Australian online real estate company realestate.com.au Ltd (also know as the REA Group) explains his views concerning Rightmove and Propertyfinder.com two of the UKs most powerful property websites. The article entitled ‘Why Rightmove should acquire Propertyfinder’ was recently published at Property Portal Watch a specialist website aimed at operators of property portal sites.
Simon Bakers comments will come with some clout as a respected former executive at REA group. During his time at the company, Simon Baker grew revenues from $4m in FY 2001 to $155m in FY 2008. Shareholders benefited under his reign by increased market capitalisation from $8m in June 2001 to over $600m in June 2008.
In his article he brings in the concept of the an acquisition of Propertyfinder by Rightmove stating “ Times are tough in the UK market at the moment and it seems to me that the best value creating play would be a merger of Rightmove and Propertyfinder and therefore increase the gap between Rightmove and the rest of the market”
The article examines the positions of both websites in today’s market explaining that Rightmove.co.uk is the clear market leader in the UK. However it was coming under pressure from a variety of sources including agents who are either ceasing to trade, other agents who are finding paying the monthly subscription challenging, and from the new age competitors such as Globrix who are offering free advertising models.
He states that in his view REA Group / News International would welcome the deal as it would get them out of a difficult situation
