Sat, 06 Jul 2013 | BUSINESS SALE
Online news business TheBusinessDesk.com has been bought by technology investor Mark Hales in a deal designed to help drive the company towards expansion.
The website, which was founded in 2007, was the first online regional business news service in the country when it first launched in Yorkshire. Since then, the company has expanded its reach to cover the North West in 2008, and a further branch to cover the West Midlands opened in 2010.
A total of 12 journalists and sales staff are employed by the company. While the site is free for users, it manages to attract over £1 million in advertising revenue generated through its websites and emails. The firm also launched an app recently, which has more than 115,000 registered users.
David Parkin and Paul Snape, the website's founders, are to sell their stakes in the firm, as will the original shareholders.
Mr Parkin commented on the sale: “This marks a new stage in the business and will allow us to invest in redeveloping the site and adding new technology. There are a lot of people who have contributed to our success, not least the original board and the backers who took a leap of faith in 2007 when we had spent over a year seeking funding from a variety of funds, banks and other sources.
“We are grateful to them for their support and I am excited to see what we can achieve working with Mark Hales as we look to the next stage of expansion, taking the brand we have created together to a national audience.”
Mr Hales first invested in the site back in February 2010 but he is hoping to continue to drive the site's innovative approach to publishing through his acquisition. The new owner confirmed that he has plans to invest in a new desktop website, as well as developing a new mobile site and launching new products before bringing the service to new regions.
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