Leading Music Web Site-$70K annual revenue, 32430 subscribers, 100 stream Real server

URL: Requires an NDA--Please contact oldcowhand<at>gmail<dot>com or PM to receive an NDA and a comprehensive business review. Serious inquiries ONLY. In your reply, please tell a bit about your company, your acquisition history and your goals/objectives in pursuing the purchase for this site.

Age of site (months): 151 (12.5+ years)

Monthly revenue: $5800

Revenue details:
Full financials (income statements, balance sheets, cash flow summary), including 3rd party verifications of advertising revenue and bank statements evidencing deposits available under NDA.

Monthly page views: 5 million

Traffic details:
Traffic from search engines and links from other sites.

The site includes 2 forums (including software) and 2 newsletters with a total of 32,430 members.

Also included: 2 Linux servers, all fully-licensed content (including BMI, ASCAP, SESAC and other licensed content), a 100-stream RealMedia server license, an internally-developed, database-driven ad server system, all domain names and the intellectual property (copyrighted and trademarked material) associated with the site.

Description:
Leading content web site with 13 year history focusing on Country Music and related topics. The site targets a well-defined niche and has developed a critical mass of Country Music enthusiasts who visit the site to access this unique content. Management has positioned the site as the first place that Country Music fans and members of the Country Music industry go for country music entertainment, news and information, and the opportunity to purchase Country Music-related products. Some of the site's fully licensed content offerings include:

• Daily news
• Album reviews
• Interactive online fan forums
• A robust interactive community
• Artist-specific sites
• Streamed weekly countdown show, on-demand music samples
• Free online guitar instruction, lyrics, chords and guitar tab

The site has gained widespread acceptance throughout the Country Music industry and have developed strategic relationships that include Ask.com, Country Weekly Magazine, the New York Post, MSN, WindowsMedia.com, Real Networks, Yahoo! and The Country Music Association. As a result of these relationships, the site has provided in-depth coverage of the CMA's annual County Music Awards and Fan Fair events. The site's weekly countdown show is currently the highest rated country music genre show on WindowsMedia.com, and the countdown show represents a large untapped on-line or offline syndication opportunity.

The company generates its revenue through the sale of advertising by in-house staff and by advertising networks. The company is profitable with revenue in the high 5 figures, gross profit of approximately 48% and operating profit of approximately 33%.

The owner primarily responsible for the content, along with the staff and writers, are interested in continuing with the company after a sale at the new owner's option. The owners would prefer a partner that wishes to grow the site further and has media/advertising contacts for ad sales to avoid high commissions from external agencies, but will consider others with interest.

Type of site:
Established and functional website with traffic

Price range sought: $45500-$65500

Indexed pages (Google): 72349

Indexed pages (Yahoo): 705720

Google page rank: 5

Alexa site rank: 98654

 

not my type of site, but for anyone who runs a forum

knows that that little snippet right there is where a lot of the value is. Forums and visitors that have developed the inertia of visitors that visit regularly outside of search engines and advertising tend to be very stable and that alone would put a site like this towards the upper end of the price range.

 

Sounds like a valuable site - just a shame I have no interest business or personal in country music - otherwise sounds like it could be a great investment for somebody.

 

You require an NDA just to give someone an URL? What on earth for? It's not as if an URL is confidential or anything.

 

No, but the identity of the site is something that the owners don't want to broadcast on a public forum. It's perfectly reasonable, and is VERY common in M&A.

 

sure, just imagine if any of the fortune 500 companies announced, "we want to sell our site", that would put a serious dent in their share price.

Companies like www.bobbysvillagewidgets.com can sell with no problem, if you selling www.google.com, you need an NDA.

Having said that, oldcowhand, don't you think you should do this sale through a mediary sedo, et.al. and include a few lawyers in those conversations.

 

Do you got proofs of revenue?

 

LOL country is the last thing on my mind but this should be a great buy for someone who loves this type of thing..

Goodluck!

 

EMPServices: Publicly held Fortune 500 companies don't need the protection. Privately held companies routinely use NDAs, even if Web sites have traditionally not done so here. If someone is interested in the business, I'm sure that signing an NDA in order to receive detailed financial and operational information won't be a problem. If potential buyers have lawyers, that's fine. The owners of the site have no qualms about dealing with intermediaries. Sedo is a waste of time, unless untargeted spam and non-qualified information seekers are what you want. This site has far better quality in terms of visitors.

 

Of course, full revenue substantiation (including revenue substantiations from outside agencies) and bank statements are provided. Historical financials are provided back to 1998. Statistics are also substantiated (actual raw logs and historical numbers are provided).

 

Actually, sell-offs and takeovers usually increase the share price of the target company.

You might need an NDA to see financial statistics, but I can't see why you'd need one to know the name of the business/site up for sale. Apart from anything else, you're making it more difficult for potential buyers to find out about the sale in the first place.

 

Tend to agree, but he's already dropped enough hints that it should be pretty easy to find the URL yourself.

 

E-mail sent. Please provide me with some basic information and I'll provide information on our companies.

Cheers,

Paul

 

Yep--if you have done even a CURSORY Google search, you should already know which sites are included in the package.

 

I disagree--everyone knows about the sale. You're here posting about it and this thread has more than 300 views. Exposure is never a problem in any business sale. The problems are qualification and the management of confidential business information. The NDA is extremely common. In the wider M&A world, it is rare to get more than what we've provided (again, this site's experiences aside).

Requiring an NDA and some qualifying information also serves a practical purpose, since it helps to weed out the people who only are in it to find out information for their own business or who aren't actually interested or don't have the means to make a purchase.

 

@ pwaring:

I've had extensive discussions with oldcowhand about the business he is selling here. As an experienced buyer of businesses and websites I'd have done exactly what he did. Internet businesses selling at $500 are marketed quite differently to the higher worth properties. $50K is a different market and the buyers in that market play the game differently. They, like me, are happy to sign NDAs, commission due diligence, employ legal firms to draw up documentation etc.

That's the idea! (Most of those "potential buyers" are actually just "casually curious passers-by". The real potential buyers with $50K in their back pockets don't need instant gratification - they'll do the NDA and wait for the URL )

Sorry for continuing the off-topic discussion. Maybe now everyone can return to the business at hand

 

I agree, I can understand not needing a NDA on a $500 site but when you start talking about sites at this level I think it is needed. I have looked at the site and as a potential buyer I really would not want everyone to know what I paid for the site. Many buyers, myself included, would prefer that the URL not be posted on the net so everytime someone searches for the site they find a thread where the site has been sold.

Besides that if you are a serious buyer you would not have an issue with taking the time to sign the NDA. It really does keep down on the tire kickers and about 90% of the buyers at this price are just tire kickers looking for some free info.