Axel Springer is also fully regional in the digital business with meinestadt - and is spending a lot of money to expand its range: The subsidiary Axel Springer Digital Classifieds, founded in the spring, takes over 100 percent of the shares in Allesklar.com AG. The Siegburg-based company operates Meinestadt, which it says is Germany's leading regional portal. Until recently, the competitor Holtzbrinck held shares in the company.
Springer is digging deep into its pockets for the takeover of Meinestadt: The subsidiary Axel Springer Digital Classifieds, which was founded in March together with General Atlantic, is reportedly paying around 50 million euros for the purchase. The previous owner was the founding family around Manfred Stegger with 56.1 percent. Holtzbrinck Verlag, which joined Allesklar.com in 2006 via its subsidiary Holtzbrinck Digital Strategy, most recently held 43.9 percent of the shares.
Allesklar was founded in 1996. In addition to Meinestadt, the approximately 300 employees also look after the local web catalog Allesklar.de and the singles exchange platform Datingcafe. By far the most important offer is the Meinestadt portal. According to Agof, in May 2012 regional content such as job and apprenticeship vacancies, real estate and vehicle ads, and classified ads for currently more than 11,300 German cities and communities gave the portal around 8.5 million unique users. In the Agof offer ranking for the month of May, this meant rank 17 (see chart above)
Springer is convinced that the money is well invested. "Meinestadt has grown profitably in the long term, has a very high reach and brand awareness as well as enormous development prospects due to its regional and local anchoring," says Jens Müffelmann, Head of the Electronic Media Management Division portfolio of supra-regional classifieds marketplaces," Müffelmann continues.
The company will be managed in the future by Georg Konjovic, 34. The former managing director of the regional portal Hamburg is currently still working as Director Premium Content at Springer and is expected to take up his new post at the beginning of 2013 at the latest. While Allesklar.com's Chief Operating Officer (COO), Peter Bettin, 50, remains on board, founder and CEO Manfred Stegger will leave the company.