Up Next(ag) On the Acquisition Block
While the echo chamber will no doubt lather itself in a stupor over rumors that a small social news site with growing traffic maybe acquired for $35m, elsewhere real money sounds like it is poised to change hands.
Jay Weintraub, who uncomfortably picked, from a legal standpoint, the pricegrabber acquisition a long time before it was announced, says that Mr Diller is poised to buy Nextag. He had heard Quinstreet, a lead generator in the online education space was nearly going to buy them but now Diller is the favored suitor. In a wildcard scenario Jay says Diller may buy both Quinstreet and Nextag.
Diller has struggled with developing a comparison shopping service of his own and Pronto debuted to a lukewarm reception. But that’s not likely the driver of the love of Nextag.
Through lendingtree he has developed a taste for mortgage leads, where Nextag has best carved out its niche.
If this does indeed go through, and I can’t imagine it would be for less than $500m and perhaps might push $800-900m, Diller will have proven himself a shrewd investor once more. And then no doubt he will prove himself a less-than-shrewd operator as the firm grows nicely but not fantastically once more.
On the one hand, Jay knows his stuff.
On the other, I heard the Diller rumor so many times at the ‘Tag I’ve lost count.