• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

MoneySupermarket to buy MoneySavingExpert

Status
Not open for further replies.

Eagle

Established Member
Joined
20 Feb 2011
Messages
7,106
Location
Leamingrad / Blanfrancisco
Although this might be tangentially relevant to fares and tickets, I'm erring on the side of caution and posting this in GD...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18295587

BBC said:
High-profile personal finance commentator and campaigner Martin Lewis has sold his MoneySavingExpert.com website for up to £87m. It is being bought by MoneySupermarket.com which runs an online price comparison service. Martin Lewis will remain as editor-in-chief of MoneySavingExpert, which will retain its editorial independence via an agreed editorial code. The deal will need to be approved by the Office of Fair Trading.

Martin Lewis said: "This is great news for MoneySavingExpert.com and its users, ensuring, with or without me, the site will be around for many years to come, maintaining our ethos of 'cutting your costs and fighting your corner'. MoneySavingExpert.com has become part of people's daily lives, far bigger than the man who founded it, and now is the right time for it to stand on its own two feet."

Under the terms of the deal, Mr Lewis, who started his website in 2003, will receive an initial £35m plus shares in MoneySupermarket.com worth £25m. After three years he may receive a further £27m in cash and shares. He said he would give some of his proceeds to charity. "In keeping with the site's aims, when the deal completes, £10 million will go to charity, including £1 million to Citizens' Advice, which is facing terrible funding cuts," Mr Lewis said.

The two websites already have a very close business relationship. In the 12 months to the end of last October, MoneySavingExpert generated revenues of nearly £16m from 39 million users. Of this income, about 59% was earned from referral fees paid by MoneySupermarket. These are generated whenever a reader of MoneySavingExpert clicks on a link that takes them through to the MoneySupermarket price comparison service, or when the reader follows a link to a financial product or service provided by MoneySupermarket.

Peter Plumb, chief executive of MoneySupermarket, extolled the virtues of the takeover. "We've worked closely together for years with the common goal of helping customers save money," he said. "We'll help MoneySavingExpert.com reach a wider audience and MoneySavingExpert.com will broaden the range of advice and tools we offer, encouraging even more people to take action, tap into the benefits of the internet to find a better deal and make the most of their money."
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

telstarbox

Established Member
Joined
23 Jul 2010
Messages
5,928
Location
Wennington Crossovers
Fair play to ML - I'd hazard a guess that he's saved the collective public at least the sale price over the years, he's promoted financial education and criticised loan sharks etc, and £10m is going to Citizens Advice.
 

tbtc

Veteran Member
Joined
16 Dec 2008
Messages
17,882
Location
Reston City Centre
Fair play to ML - I'd hazard a guess that he's saved the collective public at least the sale price over the years, he's promoted financial education and criticised loan sharks etc, and £10m is going to Citizens Advice.

Agreed.

He's saved people a fortune, and there was always going to be a time when the website's future meant putting it in other people's hands.

At a time when the recession/ Government cuts are putting a lot more people in financial pressure, the donation to the CAB is welcome too.
 

142094

Established Member
Joined
7 Nov 2009
Messages
8,789
Location
Newcastle
Although I am of course biased - this site still has better information on ticketing that MSE.
 

WestCoast

Established Member
Joined
19 Jun 2010
Messages
5,574
Location
Glasgow
Although I am of course biased - this site still has better information on ticketing that MSE.

One would hope so given the specialist nature of the forum! I doubt RailUK could match the impartial and comprehensive advise given on matters such as insurance policies, consumer credit and switching energy suppliers though!
 

142094

Established Member
Joined
7 Nov 2009
Messages
8,789
Location
Newcastle
One would hope so given the specialist nature of the forum! I doubt RailUK could match the impartial and comprehensive advise given on matters such as insurance policies, consumer credit and switching energy suppliers though!

Yup, just a shame that some of the things that are advised on MSE turn out to be at best incorrect, or at worst, illegal.
 

soil

Established Member
Joined
28 May 2012
Messages
1,956
Of course, had the Government not decided to drop their charity cap plans, this wouldn't've been possible.

Not sure about that.

The existing company could donate the cash out of untaxed profits.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top