Selling a website... (for over $10M)

[kindai]

Possibly the weirdest thing I've ever gotten involved in...

While im not at liberty to disclose the site, ive been asked by a friend to help them sell a website.

Calculations aside, and a fairly rough figure based on website turnover, assets to be sold off, userbase values... a figure of $10M would be a fair amount for both sides.

The question being, where on earth do we go with that kind of... for sale offer?

Anyone here ever been involved in the transfer of such things before?

 

[kindai]

I'd be finding a good law firm to help you out.

http://www.chambersandpartners.com/guide/uk/1

http://www.legal500.com/c/london/tmt-technology-media-and-telecoms/it-and-telecoms

Etc.

Obviously any deal will be done via extremely reputable lawyers.

The main thing at this point is working out where we might find potential buyers or visionaries for said site... as selling something like this site is not your run of the mill thing.

 

[Pudney]

It really depends on the site and what the value is to a potential buyer. E.g. a site that could tie in to a brand or industry, approach companies in that area. If it's a more generic site you may want to go somewhere that deals with business sales/acquisitions. They tend to have books of companies/people on the lookout for companies/assets etc.

 

[AHarvey]

You can set the price to whatever you like but if you don't have a buyer lined up I feel it's a rather pointless venture.

Without knowing the subject the site is based around people aren't really going to be able to give you decent suggestions.

Your main areas would be competitors which should be easy to find.

I just find it very odd someone can stick a $10 million sale value on a website without having an potential buyer, or ideas of who could buy it.

 

[kindai]

Unfortunately having to keep things vague I know doesnt help.

We have a list of assets of the site and their estimated values, now if we split them off to companies, easily found, that 10M figure would be easily reached. The main thing however is not wanting to go down that route, and would rather sell the site as a whole to be done with it, so then any buyer could split it down and save us the hassle of doing it ourselves.

 

[Pudney]

Are the assets and website in a Ltd company? If so I would be strongly looking to sell the shares rather than the trading assets. Would be substantially more tax efficient. If it's a serious chunk of assets I'd go to a reasonably decent sized firm of accountants, get some options, and see who they know (or have) in the M&A realm.

But it's hard to tell with your vagueness

 

[kindai]

Yea I know, sucks

I'm going to have to put a dossier together anyway, so will put it up here once its compiled.

Genuinely, considering an offer myself, hes said I could have it at "mates rates enit" lol.

 

[booyaka]

As above - it's hard to say but sticking a valuation on a company/assets without actually having anything firm/concrete to base it on is pure speculation really.

Until such time as someone is willing to pay what you "think" it's worth - you can say it's worth £100 or £100 million....it's all relative.

 

[HangTime]

Is the dossier available yet?

 

[kindai]

Nope, a deal was done with a silicon valley startup

 

[Nitefly]

Ideally the sale should be as tax efficient as possible - you should get advice on that aspect of it for sure. I'm not a tax lawyer but I know when to spot an 'unknown unknown' - such unknown usually being tax structuring!

Any of the firms listed in Moses's link should see your friend well.

Edit - oh, old thread.

 

[kindai]

What was the ballpark figure achieved?

Not allowed to say, lets just put it like this, if someone brought it for $10M it was a steal.

 

[sigma]

Did you get a cut?

If so, did I mentioned that I am your new best friend? BFF