Trade Me to buy 50% of Stuff Digital
Stuff Group chief executive Sinead Boucher and TradeMe chief executive Anders Skoe.
Photo:
Supplied / TradeMe
Stuff and Trade Me have announced a merger.
In a statement, the companies say Trade Me will take a 50 percent stake in Stuff Digital - which publishes the website stuff.co.nz and ThreeNews.
Stuff's mastheads - The Post, the Press and the Waikato Times - it's events business and Neighbourly are not included in the deal.
Last year the media company was divided in two - Stuff Digital and
Masthead Publishing
which runs newspaper brands and their own websites.
Boucher bought Stuff from its Australian owners Nine Entertainment for $1 in 2020. In February this year, she
changed her holdings in Stuff Digital
from being the owner of the one and only share to being the sole holder of one million shares.
Boucher said the deal with Trade Me provided "brilliant new opportunities together, and for Stuff Group, continued investment in technology and talent for the future."
"It was important to me that we found the right partner at the right time in our growth strategy, protecting our fiercely independent media business which isloved and trusted by millions of New Zealanders," she said in a statement.
Skoe said the advantages of the deal were clear from the outset, particularly for Trade Me Property customers. "This acquisition will enable vendors and agents to reach an even wider pool of prospective buyers while empowering buyers with every resource to navigate the property market with confidence.
Under the agreement, Stuff's property section will become Trade Me Property branded, with listings, ads and some content shared across both platforms.
Boucher said editorial independence and integrity was intrinsic to Stuff, and Trade Me was committed to upholding Stuff's editorial code of ethics and practice.
Boucher will chair the new Stuff Digital Ltd Board. Stuff retains operational control of the business through the chair's casting vote.
Skoe will have a seat and there will be equal representation from both organisations.
The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
Newsroom co-founder and former NZ Herald editor Tim Murphy says the deal will put pressure on NZME on its big day - on Tuesday afternoon, its annual shareholders meeting is likely to see it take on Steven Joyce as chair and outspoken shareholder Jim Grenon as a director.
Murphy said the deal worked for both Stuff and Trade Me.
"It makes a lot of sense, particularly given the main opponent or competitor, NZME, is right now looking at its property vehicle OneRoof. If OneRoof was to get separated and get more equity into it, more capital to play with and expand as it thinks it needs to, that could really have a go at Trade Me's base."
He said Trade Me putting its property vehicle on to Stuff would make it harder for OneRoof to compete.
Stuff journalists could end up writing "a whole lot more stories about houses for sale", he said.
"I mean, you look at the NZ Herald site sometimes and it can be quite dominant, the level of housing, celebrity housing, real estate deals…it's a big quotient of the Herald's offering."
Murphy said it would work for Stuff too. The value of the deal is not known but he said Stuff would have been suffering in the economic downturn of recent years.
"Such a big player relying on digital advertising that has gone down and down and down, from what we see from the listed company NZME. It would have been the same on Stuff… the income, the revenue from the digital side will have been really stretched. As well as that they've bought into and agreed to do Three News… so that was a deal that cost a bit and it has probably cost them more as it's gone along.
"It's just required more spend and a bit more cost. I think if you're Sinead, the owner, you're sitting there thinking you know I need some sort of equity injection.
"I do think it works for Stuff and it probably puts pressure on NZME more than they would have hoped on their big day."
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