Chemiskor seals deal to buy The Mother.Ship Poland
By : Roseanne Gerin
Media group Chemiskor signed a contract to purchase the financially troubled Internet company The Mother.Ship Poland (MSP), which owns the Ahoj portal, as part of its strategy to build a media-holding company to be renamed 4Media.
Chemiskor said on March 10 that it would pay zl. 8.05 million ($2 million) for MSP by Sept. 30. As part of the deal, the firm agreed to purchase 97% of MSP's online auction service for zl. 48,500 and 75% of its online travel service for zl. 7,500. The remaining stakes will be kept by the original entrepreneurs of the sites, according to Jeffery Grady, the chief executive officer and cofounder of MSP. In turn, MSP agreed to acquire shares of Chemiskor.
Chemiskor originally intended to create its own portal prior to purchasing Ahoj, according to Monika Sarnecka, the company's spokeswoman. She declined to give further details of Chemiskor's plans and added that the firm would discuss its strategy at a news conference in two weeks. In February, Chemiskor bought about zl. 2 million ($500,000) of Ahoj's debt owed to OMD media house.
Grady, who is the chairman of New World Publishing, the company that owns the Business Journal, said he was pleased with the deal and that his company received a fair price "given the market conditions that continue to decline worldwide." He added that there would be some staff reductions since Chemiskor would combine Ahoj's content with its own, but that the Ahoj name and brand would be retained.
Ahoj, launched last May, is the fifth most popular portal in Poland. The Mother.Ship experienced financial difficulties earlier this year when its Belgian investor, Deficom, withheld a second round of financing.
