DoneDeal sells 50% stake to Norway’s Schibsted

Norway’s Schibsted Media Group is to take a stake of just over 50% in Irish online classifieds adverts site DoneDeal, it has been announced.

The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

As part of this deal, Fred Karlsson, co-founder of DoneDeal will continue in the management of the company and as a major shareholder in the business.

DoneDeal, which employs 10 staff at its offices in Wexford. had revenues of slightly more than €3m in the fiscal year that ended April 30, 2011.

Founded in 2005 by Fred and Geraldine Karlsson, DoneDeal claims over 2 million unique visitors to its website every month.

The Schibsted Media Group, which has 7,200 employees in 25 countries. operates a specialist Classified Media division which supports it network of online classifed sites.

“We are very happy to include DoneDeal into our family of online classified sites in Schibsted,” said Terje Seljeseth, CEO of Schibsted Classified Media

“A strong number one position in the local Irish market together with a financially sound and profitable business operation, means that DoneDeal is ideally positioned to grow further in the years to come and to take advantage of society’s move to greater use of online classifieds sites to buy and sell things.”