Internet sports publishing company 365 Digital Publishing has bought itself out from its UK shareholders, to become a fully owned South African business and now has its eye to taking on a black empowerment shareholder.
The Cape Town-based publisher produces sports sites such as Rugby365, Football365, Cricket365, and various other sites relating to car racing, golf and that cater for particular sports fan tastes.
A statement released yesterday says 365 Digital Publishing (www.365pub.co.za) has, apart from a brief time at inception, been a wholly owned subsidiary of various UK based media/technology businesses. The most recent owner was London-listed UK Betting.
Last month the 365 management launched a buyout deal to purchase the company from UK Betting. The equity held in the majority by management with a small stake held by private equity company Polly Capital, owned by former 365 chairman Richard Pembroke.
No details were given about the value of the deal, although it is believed it was consummated for a minimal amount. However, the company says it will continue to deliver sports related content to its former UK principal.
The original model for the business was to produce the content out of Cape Town and generate the revenues in the UK and Europe, which came from advertising, content syndication, web contract publishing and e-commerce. Syndication meant that sports content is sold to Vodafone, Eurosport, Oz, Tiscali and several local South African syndication clients.
365 founding joint MD John Dobson says the deal means the company can now undertake a "decent black empowerment deal" - something that was not on its UK owner`s agenda.
An empowerment deal that will involve the transfer of up to a third of the company`s shares should take place within the next three months.
Joint MD and commercial director Nikki Cockcroft says: "We have trimmed off non-core UK operations, but have secured two lucrative UK content contracts instead. Simultaneously we are looking to grow our share of the South African market - along our lines of web development advertising and content syndication. We will also look to expand our current US and near East client base."
Web development is an area which 365 is pushing - with the company doing sites for the likes of ITV and European club rugby league Zurich (UK) and Premier Soccer League and others locally.
According to the Online Publishers Association, 365 Digital Publishing in September had 63 113 unique browsers and 840 468 page impressions.
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