Axel Springer Digital Classifieds, a strategic partnership between Axel Springer and the global growth investor General Atlantic founded in the spring of 2012, has signed an agreement to acquire allesklar.com, which operates Germany’s local portal meinestadt.de.
The company is being sold by the founding Stegger family (56.1 per cent) and by Holtzbrinck Digital Strategy (43.9 per cent).
Founded in 1996, the Siegburg-based company currently employs a staff of about 300 people. Its most important asset is the local portal meinestadt.de, which attracts more than eight million unique monthly users (AGOF). Users turn to meinestadt.de for a variety of local and regional content, including job and apprenticeship offers, real estate and automotive ads and general classifieds for some 11,337 German cities and towns. The regionally specific portal sites also offer city information and leisure time recommendations, as well as local news, information on events, movie schedules, and a business directory.
Jens Müffelmann (pictured), head of the electronic media division at Axel Springer, says: “meinestadt.de offers sustained profitable growth, a very wide reach and strong brand familiarity, as well as tremendous growth prospects, due to its focus on regional and local content. As a leader among regional portals, moreover, meinestadt.de makes an excellent fit with our portfolio of national classified marketplaces.”
Jörn Nikolay, principal and head of General Atlantic’s German office, says: “The acquisition of meinestadt.de marks yet another milestone of our classifieds initiative, after the founding of Axel Springer Digital Classifieds and the acquisition of Totaljobs.”
Following the acquisition, the founder and chief executive officer Manfred Stegger has decided to leave the company. Georg Konjovic will succeed him by 1 January 2013 at the latest. Appointed director premium content at Axel Springer since 1 January 2011, he also served as the managing director of hamburg.de, the official city portal of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, from 2007 to 2010. Peter Bettin, chief operating officer of allesklar.com, will continue as a management board member.
