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Gumtree South Africa was founded in 2004 and has been on a whirlwind journey in recent years. Previously they were acquired by eBay, the US e-commerce giant, after which being offloaded to Norway-based online classifieds group Adevinta.
Gumtree South Africa is one of the country’s biggest websites. “The online classifieds platform helps millions of users and customers buy and sell second-hand goods daily and holds solid leadership positions in the competitive South African market,” Ignition Group said in a statement on Friday.
“This acquisition cements our strategy of investments in the technology and media sectors and provides our portfolio of businesses with a solid platform for growth,” said Sean Bergsma in the statement. “We plan to enable Gumtree customers to experience new ways of buying and selling through partnerships with the Ignition ecosystem of services.”
He said the Gumtree acquisition is the “ideal next step to taking the business in new and exciting directions for the future and opening up a wealth of opportunities for Gumtree users through the platform”.
As always, the sale of Gumtree is still conditional to all the usual regulatory approvals. However, this shouldn’t be a major in issue in South Africa as the Ignition Group isn’t consolidating the market by acquiring Gumtree.
“As a proudly African-rooted business, this acquisition cements our strategy of investments in the technology and media sectors and provides our portfolio of businesses with a solid platform for growth. We plan to enable Gumtree customers to experience new ways of buying and selling through partnerships with the Ignition ecosystem of services,” Bergsma said.
