MSE Discussion: MoneySavingExpert.com to join the MoneySupermarket.com group

lilgreenmomo

mlewis3179 wrote: »

So by starting the site he has the right to take all the reward. Does only the first person to hold the baton in a relay race get a medal or do they all share in the reward?

In a word, yes!

What you seem to be missing is that "Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert" is essentially a business, not a co-operative. At first a one man band trading as The Money Saving Expert and this site was a way to provide 'added value" to the information he provided via his media appearances and columns.

He alone made initial the investment in the site by paying for the hosting, developing the design and producing the content. The site grew beyond the original 'added value' objective and the addition of the forums meant that it became self propagating and so he needed help to maintain it, so he took on employees, which you can do and still retain sole tradership status in the eyes of HMRC. What he didn't do, it seems from reading the blog, is take on other partners* (a different legal entity) and so retained sole and ultimate control of "Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert" the business and the brand, which means he alone is entitled to profit from the sale of that business and brand. He has always been honest and upfront about how this site is funded and at NO point has he said that the site is a NOT FOR PROFIT venture. The goalposts haven't been moved, he's just making more profit out of it than he could have dared to expect when he made his initial investment.

That isn't to say his employees won't benefit in some way (they probably will but we aren't privvy to that as it's between Martin and his employees) but let's put it like this, assuming you work for a company for a living - be it a PLC, Ltd, LLP, Unincorporated partnership or just one bloke who pays you a weekly / monthly wage and ensures your NIC & Income Tax is deducted from that wage - and that company gets bought out and the owner makes money out of the buyout, would you expect to make some money too when you're only an employee and have no special arrangement, would you expect the owner to share that wealth out to his clients? No, I didn't think so. I think you need to reconsider your reply to me, it's a little naive.

*This is all assuming he didn't incorporate the "Martin Lewis Money Saving Expert" brand, which scanning the bottom of the website, I don't think he did as all trademarks are registered to him personally.

MakingEndsMeetToo

This week's Real Life MONEY MORAL DILEMMA:

Martin runs a web site...

Petlamb

I find myself apprehensive of this purely because he who holds the purse strings DOES have a lot of say, and I've seen enough websites sold on which promised nothing would change... but with a little drip, drip... it does.

I hope that won't be the case. Hope.

propertyman

You did a lot better than Facebook :rotfl:

Kudos

Nodders_2

Well done to you and Mrs MSE Martin. I'm frankly amazed at the number of ungrateful posts on here so I would say you got the timing spot on.

Norfolk_Jim

oh well, good while it lasted. Well done Martin on building a site worth that much and good for you in giving some of it away to charities you believe in but ultimately, unlike footballers, it always rather uncomfortable to be sold

sequence

I'd take 87 million for a website without hesitation . Who wouldn't ? It's like winning the lottery. All the naysayers would have done exactly the same in martins shoes , I guarantee!

indierocker85

To the whiners and moaners, You're all so misguided it's unbelievable.

Moneysavingexpert.com makes money, this has always been made clear. A lot of it comes from affiliate programs, the major affiliate program is MoneySupermarket.com. They account for about 60% of MoneySavingexpert.com earnings , think about it now. They (MoneySupermarket) buy out this site for £87m and with that, they still get the man behind the magic to run it for them, for a minimum f 3 years. That's a good return in itself.

Also, MoneySupermarket can plough their internal resources into MoneySavingExpert.com, such as Search Optimisation (getting it higher in Google) and making it more accessible for mobile phone visitors, and get it visited by more people, earning more in the same manner as it always has, which would benefit MoneySupermarket as they'd retain the affiliate cash they would normally have paid on to MoneySaving Expert. So there's the return on investment. They can very easily push for a better financial earning from this site, without having to necessarily change the model of it, or even how it is run, or operated in anyway. Also, they are legally bound by an Editorial code that forbids them from most of what you claim will happen anyway.

melancholly

You know it's interesting. A few people I know use the main site and get advice there but have never heard of the forum, let alone used it. Taking that into consideration, I think some of the 'you'd be nothing without us' posts are probably just plain wrong. I'm a little uncomfortable with the news - maybe because I noticed it on the BBC website since it wasn't massively publicised on the forum main page. But I think I'll defer judgement until I've read more and mainly, I'll just wait and see. I think the sale for that staggering amount says a lot about how saving money is mainstream and how different a society we are now compared to when the site started.

Here's hoping everything done in good faith comes true!

photome

Mixed views, I think martin has sold out and the site will change for the worse, and lots of people may leave so dont know if the new owners will get their moneyback?

having said that if I was martin and someone offered me 87,000,000 it wouldnt take much arm twisting