Okay, Josh Stomel’s just pointed to a somewhat cryptic document (.pdf) from the Federal Trade Commission. It’s an ‘early termination notice under pre-merger, Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.’ Apparently made to shorten the waiting period before a merger or acquisition declared to the FTC and Department of Justice in advance – the declaration’s made so the government can get in a little antitrust investigation beforehand. Routine, it seems, once the companies involved are over a certain size. I also gather that if your name appears on that document, the transaction’s just received the federal stamp. And PriceGrabber and GUS plc are right there on the second page. Looks like the rumors are true. GUS plc already owns credit-report company Experian and lead generation company LowerMyBills as well as several retail properties, so PriceGrabber fits in nicely.
Josh Stomel and Jay Weintraub have been hinting about this one for a while, but this is the first piece of publicly available confirmation I’ve seen – and since it’s from the feds I’m convinced enough to write about it. Congrats to PriceGrabber! Anyone know the amount of the transaction?
UPDATE: It’s official. $485 million was the purchase price.
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This is horrible news, I’m familar with lowermybills, and the other companies they bought. they turn everything they touch into nothing more than a glorified call center.
What a waste.
I love comment #2.
Yeah, agree, Experian is just sucking up companies because they can. They had no other way in really tapping the online market and reaching that many consumers, thus acquiring these .com’s get’s there foot in the door. Experian is a waste, nothing exciting… Although i am sure the founder of Pricegrabber and Yahoo are pretty happy :-0
Nice job guys
Experian is a becoming a monster! I didn’t start the rumors (well, maybe I did) but I did make a prediction about this earlier this year. The rationale behind it is that Experian has a massive database on conusmer behavior. It sells that data to other companies to market to us all (yes, you can thank Experian for many of those credit card offers you get in the mail).
If you were Experian, wouldn’t you want to market to all of these people whom you know so much about? Not only could you earn more, you could also get more data based on consumer response. I also think that junk mail may go the way of telemarketing (i.e. a Do Not Junk Mail list). This is a great hedge against that.
If you think that it’s about credit cards, I ask: Why stop at finance? Why not get the entire lifecycle of a consumer? Can you say AutoByTel (or any other auto lead gen site that may be willing to be acquired)?
I know these postings are old but I disagree with the comment that Experian has or will turn Pricegrabber into a mere call center. They are still running business the way they used to. They have just gotten bigger and bigger and area expanding internationally. That may have happened without Experian. But the call-center comment is a bit out of line especially since we should probably hear from a merchant who does business with them.
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