Sunnyvale, Calif., -- Yahoo, that purchased European comparison-shopping site service Kelkoo for about 475 million euros ($579 million) four years ago, has reportedly disposed of its wholly owned subsidiary for less than 100 million euros to U.K. private-equity firm “Jamplant” this holiday shopping season, Kelkoo founder and former chief executive Pierre Chappaz said Friday.
Chappaz wrote about the deal (in French) on his blog but again, Yahoo has not confirmed anything yet officially.
Robert adds: Yahoo UK confirmed the sell off to us. First sign of the sell-off came when Yahoo re-tooled Kelkoo’s Grenoble, France, HQ in September as an R&D centre. Chappaz refused to name the price but said it was “below 100 million euros” - that means Yahoo makes a loss of at least 375m ($472m) euros (not including any profits in made in that time, of course). Chappaz said: “The difference is the price of management incompetence that led Yahoo’s (stock price to fall) below $9.”
“Yahoo has also talked about bringing Kelkoo to the United States,” Chappaz said.
In a copy of an e-mail obtained by TechCrunch, Glen Drury, Kelkoo’s managing director for the United Kingdom, explained about the speculation and the organization’s sale and its future. The “Toby” he mentions is apparently Toby Coppel, who heads up Europe for Yahoo, and “Laila,” who co-signed the letter, is apparently Kelkoo’s Laila Dahlen:
Firstly, I would like to end the rumors going on from the last few months about the future of Kelkoo. Both Toby and I have announced that we were exploring strategic options for the business. One of the options that Laila and I were exploring, in fact pushing for, was to find it a new home for Kelkoo. I am pleased to announce, today, that we have done just that!
The new owners of Kelkoo are a U.K.-based private-equity company called Jamplant, funded by several angel investors, and in their own words: “Jamplant Limited is very excited about the price comparison space, and being able to help Kelkoo continue its rapid growth.”
“Philip Smyth, Chairman of Jamplant, considers that with our backing, Kelkoo should be able to speed up its growth much faster as a standalone company,” the memo from Drury said. “We are also looking forward to working with the highly experienced and established management team at Kelkoo.”
Drury identified three priorities for Kelkoo: improved search, to give more value to users through a new Kelkoo Club service and a cashback program, and a study to better understand users and their needs.
Laila and I are also very excited about this new phase in the history of Kelkoo, speeding up the growth strategies we have put in place over the last year, and exploring new opportunities for all of us.
Chappaz, who founded Kelkoo in 1999 but has since left, said Kelkoo was sold for less than 100 million Euros (125 million US dollars), significantly less than the 475 million Euros paid by Yahoo for the firm in 2004.
Kelkoo, which employs 270 people in Paris, Grenoble and London, claims some 50 million users in 10 European countries.
The sale comes as Yahoo is looking for a new chief executive to replace Jerry Yang, the Yahoo co-founder who earlier this week announced that he would be stepping down after less than 18 months in the job.
Earlier this year, Yang rejected a 47-billion-dollar takeover offer from software giant Microsoft, earning the ire of many share-holders in the Sunnvale, California-based Internet company.
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