Brandon
Abbey
President, Escrow.com |
The
many
people in our industry who are
Escrow.com clients first got
word of the deal Sunday night
(U.S. Eastern time) when they
received an email from
Escrow.com President and
Managing Director Brandon
Abbey expressing the
company's excitement at becoming
part of the Freelancer family
and reassuring customers that
"The company will remain a
California based business
and we will continue to operate
the business as usual and
to exceed the high standards
that you have come to expect
from us."
Shortly
after Brandon's email arrived
reports and commentary on blogs
relaying the news expressed
widespread surprise about what
seemed to be a bargain basement
price for such a well-known and
respected company. The best
analysis we have seen
regarding the $7.5 million paid
was posted by Australia's Michael
Gilmour that you can
read at WhizzbangsBlog.com
(Michael is a domain industry
veteran and who holds an
MBA degree |
Freelancer.com Chief Executive
Matt Barrie said, “We are pleased to acquire Escrow.com, the
world’s largest online escrow company. This highly complementary acquisition will enhance
the ability of our 15 million users to transact securely, and there
are large opportunities for
growth and synergies with core offerings. Finally, it is a strong cornerstone for
entering the
payments space”.
Freelancer,
a public company with a market
cap of more than $460 million
((FLN:Australian Stock Exchange
Ltd), had recently raised the
money they needed for the cash
purchase by selling AUD $10
million (about $7.9
million USD at today's
exchange rate) in ordinary
shares to institutional
investors in an offering that
was oversubscribed. |