CentralNic acquires website network but doesn’t say much about it.
CentralNic (AIM: CNIC) announced today that it is acquiring a network of revenue-generating websites for $6.5 million.
The company said it was already monetizing about half the websites’ traffic. The sites should generate at least $2.0 million in revenue per year and $ 1.5 million in annualized EBITDA, so it’s paying a little over four times annual EBITDA.
A press release is scant on details. It identifies the seller as White & Case Ltd. White & Case is the name of a major law firm, but the law firm confirmed to me it is unrelated to the seller. [Update: George Kirikos found a Barbados company by this name that has been involved in at least one UDRP.]
I also contacted CentralNic’s PR agency this morning for more information about the sites and haven’t heard back at the time of posting.
With so little information about the sites, it’s difficult to put this acquisition in context. CentralNic’s advertising segment monetizes with affiliate offers as well as pay-per-click ads on unused domain names. The acquired sites could be traffic arbitrage sites or “real” content sites that require care and feeding. If it’s the latter, this would be a major departure from CentralNic’s current ad strategy.
I’ll update this story if I learn more.
E, if they are at 4 years I certainly hope they are not the kind of addresses that could be implied. 1 year I get, 2 MAYBE, 4 years…yikes. In saying that if 4 I would guess there is a mix at most and leaning toward generic with staying power, you’d imagine.
If not…. did I say yikes already?