The Murdoch family’s Australian property business has boosted its offer for Britain’s Rightmove in a deal worth nearly £5.9billion.
Rightmove is the go-to website for house hunters in Britain and has around 750 properties across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire listed on its portal.
Of all the hours Britons spend browsing homes online, more than 80% of their time is spent on Rightmove.
REA Group has improved its bid to nearly 770p a share, according to the Financial Times. The fresh approach was 7% higher than its original offer for Rightmove, which was rejected earlier this month.
The continued pursuit comes as News Corp, which owns REA, seeks to further diversify its business beyond media as patriarch Rupert Murdoch hands over the reins to his eldest son, Lachlan (pictured).
Rightmove rejected the initial approach as “opportunistic” and some investors have also spoken out to criticise the structure of the offer, which is based on a mix of cash and shares in the combined group.
Commenting on the improved proposal this morning, Owen Wilson, CEO of REA, said: "We believe that the combination of our world-leading expertise and technology with the attractive Rightmove business will create an enhanced experience for agents, buyers and sellers of property.
"We live in a world of intensifying competition and this proposed transaction would bring together two highly complementary digital property businesses for investment and growth. We have today increased our proposal to an implied value of 770 pence - it provides a combination of immediate value certainty in cash and at the same time gives Rightmove shareholders an increasing opportunity in core digital property and adjacencies where we have much expertise.
"We are genuinely disappointed at the lack of engagement by Rightmove's Board and we strongly encourage the Rightmove Board to engage."
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