Scout24 SE
ISINDE000A12DM80
IndustryOnline marketplace
Founded16 Aug 1998 (16 Aug 1998) in Munich, Germany
Number of employees
670[1] (2022)
Websitewww.scout24.com

Scout24, based in Munich, is a listed digital company and operates the online marketplace ImmoScout24. The multi-platform of ImmoScout24 has more than 20 million visitors per month in Germany in 2021 on the website or in the app.[2]

The company's shares have been listed in the MDAX since June 18, 2018.

ImmoScout24 is an online portal for real estate providers, owners, tenants and buyers. The website and app gets around 20 million visitors per month. At the end of 2019, 425,000 real estate ads were advertised on ImmoScout24.[3]

The Berlin-based company employs around 670 people.[4]

History

Scout24 was founded in 1998 by the internet entrepreneur Joachim Schoss with the financing by the entrepreneur Otto Beisheim and others.[5] In 2004, the then subsidiary of the Deutsche Telekom, T-Online, acquired Scout24 from Beisheim Holding. As a result of the merger of T-Online International with Deutsche Telekom, Scout24 became a direct subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom from June 2006.[6]

In 2011, Telekom sold the Scout24 Group's job exchange, JobScout24, to CareerBuilder.[7]

In mid-2013, Deutsche Telekom announced the sale of the Scout24 group.[8] On November 21, 2013, Telekom announced that it had sold 70 percent of its shares in Scout24 to Hellman & Friedman for EUR 1.5 billion.[9]

On September 7, 2015, Scout24 announced its IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. A total of around 29.5 million shares are to be placed at an offer volume of EUR 899 million. After the IPO, Hellman & Friedman will hold 49% and Deutsche Telekom 14% of the shares. The remaining share is to be in free float. The first day of trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was October 1, 2015.[10] In September 2016, Hellman & Friedman sold its entire stake to Scout24. In June 2018, the Scout24 share was included in the MDAX of the German Stock Exchange.[11] In July 2018, the portal Finanzcheck.de was taken over.[12]

On February 15, 2019, the Scout Group accepted a takeover bid for around 5.7 billion euros from Pulver BidCo GmbH, which is backed by the financial investors Blackstone Group and Hellmann & Friedmann.[13] The takeover fell through when, as of May 14, 2019, only 42.8% of shareholders gave their approval for the takeover, failing to meet the minimum 50% approval rating.[14] The financial investor Blackrock continues to hold a stake in Scout24.[15]

In December 2019 it was announced that Hellmann & Friedman would take over the marketplaces AutoScout24, FinanceScout24 and Finanzcheck from Scout24 for EUR 2.9 billion in the first half of 2020.[16]

Conflicts with other domain owners

Scout24 International Management AG, based in Switzerland, warned numerous owners of domains with "Scout" in their name and claimed that the sole term "Scout" without the addition "24" was protected by trademark law. However, "Scout" is not registered as a trademark, and at the end of 2012 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) rejected an application by Scout24 International Management AG directed against owners of similar domains.[17]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.scout24.com/media/scout24/Nachhaltigkeit/Berichte/Englisch/Scout24_Sustainability_Report_2021.pdf
  2. ↑ Halbjahresfinanzbericht H1 2021, page 15, accessed August 13, 2021.
  3. ↑ Scout24 Geschäftsbericht 2019, retrieved 14 April 2020.
  4. ↑ Scout24 Nachhaltigkeitsbericht 2021, accessed March 24, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Gründer von Scout24: Die zwei Leben des Joachim Schoss". Augsberger Allgemeine. 28 October 2013. Retrieved 2015-01-24.
  6. ↑ Historie. Website of Scout24 Holding GmbH, www.scout24.com. Accessed May 26, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Telekom verkauft Stellenseite überraschend an US-Rivalen". handelsblatt.com. Reuters. 2011-09-14. Retrieved 2015-02-14.
  8. ↑ Handelsblatt (2013-11-04). "Telekom verhandelt mit drei Bietern für Scout24". Retrieved 2013-11-15.
  9. ↑ Manager Magazin (2013-11-21). "Scout-Verkauf bringt 1,5 Milliarden Euro". Retrieved 2013-11-22.
  10. ↑ "Scout24 AG: Scout24 legt Preisspanne auf 26,5 Euro bis 33,0 Euro je Aktie fest". dgap.de. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  11. ↑ finanzen.net GmbH (2018-06-18). "Scout24, Delivery Hero und Puma ab heute im MDax". boerse-online.de. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  12. ↑ "Scout24 kauft Vergleichsportal Finanzcheck.de für 285 Millionen Euro". Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  13. ↑ "Internetwirtschaft: Zurück zum Ex – Was die Scout24-Übernahme über Private Equity sagt". Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  14. ↑ magazin, manager. "Scout24: Investoren scheitern mit Übernahmeangebot". www.manager-magazin.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  15. ↑ Börsennews.de. "DGAP-Stimmrechte: Scout24 AG" (in German). Retrieved 2019-09-03.
  16. ↑ "Investor kauft AutoScout24 und Finanzcheck für 2,9 Milliarden Euro". Der Spiegel (in German). 2019-12-17. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  17. ↑ "WIPO Domain Name Decision: DCH2012-0016". Retrieved 2019-03-26.
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