Google has acquired UK price comparison website BeatThatQuote for 37.7m GBP.
The US search engine giant’s cash will largely go to north London entrepreneur John Paleomylites who owns 90% of BeatThatQuote, a smaller rival to sites such as Go Compare and Compare the Market.
Google wants to expand its involvement in price comparison products – it already runs a service called Comparison Ads in the US and has some limited offerings in the UK focused on credit cards and insurance.
Paleomylites used to run internet security company JCP, which was set up in 1995 and originally financed using his credit card. He sold it to Sun Microsystems in 2000 for £40m, netting him an estimated £10m according to the Sunday Times rich list.
BeatThatQuote was founded in 2005, and in the year to 31 January 2010 – the last year for which accounts are available – the company generated £8.5m in turnover and a loss of £2m.
Although BeatThatQuote is not considered to be a market leader, Google is understood to be keen to run the business as a standalone brand at first, gradually building up its marketing and distribution power through increasing tie-ups with the search engine itself.
Google also believes that the price comparison market should be simplified – and that existing competitors are either too complex, requiring consumers to make too many clicks, or bombard customers with email marketing. However, there are no plans to expand the company internationally.
In a statement on the company’s website, Paleomylites said: “We are confident that by combining BeatThatQuote’s expertise in UK financial products with Google’s technology, we’ll accelerate innovation in this field.”
Source : Guardian.co.uk
