[Austria/France] According to investir.fi and various other sources, the world’s leading people search engine 123people, which strives from Austria, has been acquired by the leading french yellow pages company PagesJaunes. The company was incubated by i5invest and received VC money from Austrian Gamma Capital Partners.
Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
It’s rather obvious that this acquisition makes a lot of sense for a yellow pages company that makes quite a lot of money from their online properties. People search is a huge market and 123people’s SEO seems also to be a technological asset that’s of interest for Pages Jaunes.
123people is currently seeing 40 million unique visitors per month and operates in 11 countries around the globe. The entire team is based in Vienna, Austria.
Jean-Pierre Remy, Managing Director of PagesJaunes Groupe, says he’s very happy about this acquisition and that it fits perfectly in their online strategy of people search. He goes on to say that “with this acquisition, PagesJaunes Group significantly enhances its global audience, strengthens its expertise in organic search and benefits from synergies between us and 123people’s sites in France and Spain”.
Russell E. Perry, CEO of 123people, said: “The team of 123people is very excited to be part of PagesJaunes Group. In the past two years we have been able to introduce and prove a successful multi-tier business model by offering users a unique service and offering partners a high-quality online advertising outlet for their products and services. Looking ahead, we now have the opportunity to shift into high-gear through the support and strength of being an integral part of a leading and established corporation.”