Ströer SE just signed a purchase agreement to acquire a 78.8 % majority in Statista (for roughly €57 million). The remaining 21.2 % will continue to be held by the founders. Statista – based in Hamburg – is a leading data and business intelligence portal.
Statista offers key business information in the form of statistics on a single highly relevant platform. It gives access to around one million statistics from more than 18,000 sources, with one-third of the data generated independently, one-third by partners and one-third from public sources. On the basis of the compiled data, Statista constantly develops new, innovative and data-based products such as nationwide rankings (e.g. “Best employer”, “Best law firm” etc.) which are primarily marketed with partners. For this purpose, the company is already partnering with several internationally leading media companies such as Hubert Burda Media in Germany and Forbes and Bloomberg in the US.
Statista products are uniquely positioned and in a highly scalable niche easily transferable to other markets. The company currently has around 200 employees based in Hamburg, New York and London. Statista reaches four million users per month via the Statista website. In 2016, the company plans to enter other markets including the French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese markets. Ströer forecasts a revenue contribution of around € 20 million in 2016 with the company focus on optimally monetarizing the user basis of the portal portfolios. Ströer plans to achieve a targeted diversification of revenue flows with this step – previously dominated by ads – towards subscription, e-commerce and downloads.
Udo Müller, CEO of Ströer SE, commented: “With its high double-digit growth, Statista will be a key pillar and value driver for our entire digital portfolio and an anchor investment in our new e-Commerce & Subscription division. Statista is one of the few real digital innovations from Germany which is on the way to becoming a global leader in its segment and achieving systematic expansion. The management team led by Friedrich Schwandt and Tim Kröger has made excellent progress with the company’s expansion and has displayed remarkable strategic farsightedness. We are proud to lift Statista to the next level together with the team of founders.”
The purchase price for 78.8 % of the shares amounts to roughly EUR 57 million. Agreed capital increase of € 7.5 million before the deal increased Ströer’s stake to 81.3 % once the transaction is completed. The remaining 18.7 % will remain with the founders, including managing directors Friedrich Schwandt and Tim Kröger. Both will continue to manage the company in future. The main shareholder Grazia Equity and co-founder Mattias Protzmann sold all their shares. “Statista has developed excellently since its launch eight years ago and today is one of the leading online portals for statistics. This is a huge success for all parties involved. We wish the Ströer SE continued success while staying with Statista,” says Alec Rauschenbusch of Grazia Equity.
Ströer SE is a big digital multi-channel media company, and offers its advertising customers individualized and fully integrated premium communication solutions. Ströer is setting forward-looking standards for innovation and quality in the field of digital media in Europe and is opening up new opportunities for targeted customer contact for its advertisers.
