29. September 2015

ARQIS has advised MOTOR-TALK GmbH, Europe’s biggest car-community as well as its shareholders, in particular founder Prof. Hartmut Wöhlbier, on the sale of the entire shareholding in the company to mobile.de GmbH, a company of the eBay Classifieds Group. eBay Classifieds Group is a worldwide leader in online classifieds and offers customized classifieds for the local markets. With the transaction mobile.de will expand its market leadership and will inter alia become even more attractive to advertisers. The acquisition enables MOTOR-TALK and eBay to jointly develop completely new products and to combine selected offers, for example the “Motor-Agent”, which is working on basis of MOTOR-TALK information and is embedded in mobile.de. Both companies together now reach approx. 13.1 million Unique Users per month. In the future, car trading business will have access to an even larger number of potential clients. Nevertheless, the neutrality of the MOTOR-TALK community will be guaranteed and both brands will continue independently as separate brands.

Having more than 2.5 million registered community members, MOTOR-TALK is the largest European automotive and motor internet community. The website was launched in 2001 and has established as an expert platform for all cars since then.

ARQIS-Partner Prof. Dr. Christoph von Einem has advised Prof. Wöhlbier and MOTOR-TALK on venture financing rounds since the community was transferred into a limited liability company (GmbH) in 2007. ARQIS has also advised the shareholders and the company on the structuring of the sales process and the negotiations with eBay.

Advisor MOTOR-TALK

ARQIS Rechtsanwälte (Munich): Prof. Dr. Christoph von Einem (lead), Christof Alexander Schneider, Cosima Preiss; Associates: Laura Brauers, Andrea Schlote (all corporate/M&A)