Congratulations to Martin and the MSE team

ostft

Mr_Thrifty wrote: »

Yes, he's very good at what he does, and this is a great website (although it has too much of a left-wing learning for my likes lately, what with all the constant "check what benefits you're entitled to" guff).

But is this website really worth almost a tenth of a billion?

Time will tell if it turned out to be a good financial decision for moneysupermarket. I doubt if the people involved in the decision will still be around by the time anybody realises that it wasn't (if that turns out to be the case). Who then takes the losses? Let me guess, some big institutional investor like a pension fund - a.k.a. you and me.

Let's face it, websites can sink virtually overnight. Look at what happened to MySpace.

You have absolutely no understanding or experience with the internet if you believe Myspace failed over night. Myspace failed for hundreds of reasons, absolutely horrible management of the business, not understanding why users valued the site, not taking advantage of the userbase it did have... only recently have they improved and taken advantage of the value they held, just took them 5 years too long.

Anyway re: the money, MSE makes 10s of millions of £ revenue, MoneySupermarket only have to believe they can increase the revenue by 50% and the site will have paid for itself within a few years. You have to spend money to make money.

james123

I'd like to say a big well done!

CFC

ostft wrote: »

You must have a terrible world view if you're somehow upset by the news, or bitter or jealous, or even if you feel wronged.

Martin built a company that has helped hundreds of thousands of people (maybe even millions) and he has made money out of it, what's the problem?

The fact that he has become very rich because of the site surely shows that his advice is indeed valuable and he's good at what he does. Also he's already been making great money for years from this company, it's not like he's just now cashing in.

The problem is the amount of money he's been making and keeping very quiet about, and the valuation of the website.
Remember a lot of the content of the website is generated by the forums, that's you and me, helping people who are in debt etc.
Martin has made more money from this site than you could ever hope to see in 3 lifetimes, and he's done it 'under the counter' at every step. Only now it is being sold is he coming clean about the 'cash cow' it's been.

PaulBear

I would like to say the comments from users with no imagination or brains was staggering but it is what I expected.

Martin offered sound financial advice for FREE and had the belief in himself to start a FREE to users website that was unbiased but made a quid or two when it did not affect the editorial stance.
Due to his hard work, us penny pinchers and the number of gullible [and sometimes stupid] people who kept getting themselves in debt, the site became a runaway sucess. He dedicated his life to it for 7 years and will continue to do so but being practical saw that it would fail without an influx of technical help and resourses. Thus to keep it going he has sold the site to the biggest contributer and had safeguards put in to protect the ethos of the site.

MS was paying the site c.£7m a year and it was increasing so paying £85m made sense as it should recover that in less than 5 years [with tax breaks and increased revenue]. They also are not stupid, they WILL make money but less if they tamper with the editorial content as they know another site will be set up and they will lose their client base.

WELL DONE & THANK YOU to Martin & his crew for the past and the future. I cannot wait to see what you will be abe to do now you are properly funded and free of financial restraints. :beer:

CFC

PaulBear wrote: »

I cannot wait to see what you will be abe to do now you are properly funded and free of financial restraints. :beer:

Go to a tropical island probably.
Edit - BUY a tropical island

Le73Uq86Uv

Most of the content of this site was from its members and without them the site is worth nothing.

If the new owners charge or upset the members there will be no MSE.

jamespir

well done martin and congrats on the baby