Weko: Tamedia may take over Ricardo Group
Tamedia can acquire the Ricardo Group from the South African media conglomerate Naspers without any restrictions. The Swiss Federal Competition Commission has approved the acquisition.
In June 2015, the Competition Commission (ComCo) announced that in February disclosed acquisition for 240 million Fraken in greater depth, as there were fears of a dominant position in the area of job and vehicle classified ads (Werbewoche.ch reported).
The Ricardo Group operates the online marketplace Ricardo.ch with the online shopping center Ricardoshops.ch, the vehicle platform Autoricardo.ch and the classifieds platform Olx.ch.
Tamedia sees further growth potential in Ricardo's core business, the online marketplace Ricardo.ch. It is to be further developed thanks to network effects with its own media such as 20minuten.ch. Christoph Tonini, Chairman of the Tamedia Management Board, in a statement on Tuesday: "We are pleased that the Swiss Federal Competition Commission has approved the takeover of the Ricardo Group without any restrictions. With this step, we are strengthening our e-commerce offering, creating real competition in the car market and expanding our leading position in the classifieds business."
The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of the third quarter. At the beginning of July 2015, Tamedia already acquired the 50-percent stake of the Norwegian Schibsted Media Group in the previously jointly held subsidiaries Swiss Classified Media AG, Car4you Schweiz AG and Tutti.ch AG, which operate the classifieds platform tutti.ch and the car classifieds market car4you.ch. (hae/pd)
