Deal summary
- Slando, one of the largest and fastest growing online classified ad operators in Eastern Europe, was acquired by Naspers, Africa’s largest media group
- Naspers, the multinational consumer internet company acquired Slando through its subsidiary, MIH Allegro
- Slando was to continue to be based in the UK following the sale and the founders were to stay on to oversee Slando’s integration with Naspers over the next six months before leaving the company in 2012
About Slando
Slando was one of the largest and fastest growing online classified ad operators in Eastern Europe and beyond. It used to in 10 countries – Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal, Greece and Brazil – and covered 1,600 local towns and regions, providing adverts in the local language. Slando was established by Michael Pennington and Simon Crookall, who also founded and developed Gumtree before selling it to eBay in 2005. It was later renamed OLX.
About Naspers
Naspers is a leading multinational media group, incorporated in 1915 as a public limited liability company and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in September 1994. The company also has an ADR listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). In recent decades the group has evolved from a traditional print media business in one country, to a broad-based e-media company in multiple markets. In 2010 it bought a 29% stake in Digital Sky Technologies (DST) now mail.ru. Mail.ru, which floated on the LSE in November 2010, invested $800 million in Facebook, $180million in Zynga, and bought ICQ from AOL. The group’s principal operations are in internet platforms (focusing on commerce, communities, content, communication, and games), pay-television, and the provision of related technologies and print media (including publishing, distribution, and printing of magazines, newspapers, and books). The group’s most significant operations are located in emerging markets including South Africa and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, China, Latin America, Central, and Eastern Europe, Russia, and India.
"The key to our success was in applying many of the lessons we learned in setting up and developing Gumtree. We knew it would be important for advertisers to be able to post their adverts quickly and with the minimum of fuss, and to provide a local language service with a good range and quality of ads. We are very excited about Slando’s next phase of growth and prospects under new Naspers management and look forward to the brand becoming as dominant in Russia and the Ukraine as Gumtree has done in the UK and beyond."
