Pangora Take Over by US Shopping Specialist Become.com
KARLSRUHE, Germany, October 12/PRNewswire/ -- Become.com, a global leader in comparison shopping headquarted in Silicon
Valley, California, USA, takes over online marketplace technology supplier
Pangora GmbH, based in Karlsruhe, Germany. Pangora has been a subsidiary of
LYCOS Europe N.V. since 2001. The acquisition by Become.com ensures that
Pangora will continue to deliver shopping business technologies for portal
operators and online shop customers, and strengthens its competetive position
within Europe by its integration into a globally active enterprise.
Become Inc. was founded in 2004 by Internet pioneer Michael Yang. The
US-based company employs 85 staff members worldwide; headquarted in Silicon
Valley, the company is also based in Tokyo and London. The brand Become
boasts a reach of 15 million visits monthly, placing it amongst the top ten
of comparison shopping websites in the US. The acquisition of Pangora will
enable Become.com to not only utilize synergies in technology, client base
and online marketing, but is also viewed as an important step in
strengthening its competetive position within the still strongly growing
European e-commerce sector, in order to assume a leading industry role in
comparison shopping.
"Pangora is the ideal partner with which to strengthen our position on
the European market," says Michael Yang, founder and CEO of Become.com. "The
acquisiton of Pangora opens the possibility for us to accelerate our
localisation strategy within Europe, enabling rapid growth in the UK, France,
Italy and in Germany-speaking countries."
"We are pleased that a significant international player has won the sales
race for Pangora," said Robin Schönbeck, general manager of Pangora. "The two
companies complement each other ideally. This will not only ensure continued
high performance for our portal and online shopping clients, but also
increase our innovation and growth capabilities."
The companies have jointly announced that the Karlsruhe base shall be
declared European headquarters. Become.com already maintains a branch in
London, and Pangora also operates from Milan. The current Pangora management
team will remain, led by Robin Schönbeck as general manager, with Kirsten
Drössel heading the Portals & Brands department, Jan Schöttelndreier Shop
Business and Andrea Pabst Technology & Innovation.
The transaction will be closed at the end of October 2009.
Links
http://www.pangora.com
http://www.become.com
About Become.com
Become.com is a global leader in comparison shopping and lead generation
spanning several verticals, including product shopping and education.
Become.com delivers qualified leads to businesses and helps consumers find
products and services using its world-class search engine. Headquartered in
Silicon Valley, CA, with offices in Tokyo, London, Karlsruhe and Milan;
Become.com operates numerous sites including http://www.become.co.jp,
http://www.become.co.uk and http://www.education.become.com. Become.com was
founded in 2004 by Michael Yang, who was also a founder of comparison
shopping engine MySimon in 1998. Investors in Become.com include Texas
Pacific Group, Transcosmos, and European Founders Fund.
About Pangora
Pangora GmbH, a supplier of online marketplace technologies, offers
target group specific solutions for portal operators and online shops with
the goal of generating e-commerce sales. Pangora technologies process and
combine millions of pieces of product data from over 4000 retailers in
Europe. Pangora's product search and price comparison technologies have
already received numerous national and international awards. Among the 70 or
more portal clients throughout Europe are household names such as T-Online,
Freenet, Payback, PC-Welt.de and Testberichte.de. In addition to this,
Pangora operates decido (http://www.decido.de ), a portal for aiding
purchasing decisions. Pangora employs 65 staff members europeanwide.
For further information please contact:
For Become.com Europe and Pangora
Vera Vaubel
Vaubel Medienberatung GmbH
Gumppenbergstr. 6
81679 München
Tel.: +49-89-9810-3987
Fax: +49-89-9810-3988
E-Mail: medienberatung@vaubel.de
For Become.com Corporate
Dani Villalobos
Tel.: +1-408-215-4700
E-Mail: dani@become.com
Source: PANGORA
For further information please contact: For Become.com Europe and
Pangora: Vera Vaubel, Vaubel Medienberatung GmbH, Gumppenbergstr. 6,
81679 München, Tel.: +49-89-9810-3987, Fax: +49-89-9810-3988, E-Mail:
medienberatung@vaubel.de; For Become.com Corporate: Dani Villalobos,
Tel.: +1-408-215-4700, E-Mail: dani@become.com
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