4 ms·

Bankaholic sells to Bankrate for 15 million and no one noticed

39 points by jasonlbaptiste 18y ago

crxnamja 18y ago
damn. this is ridiculous and i knew him when he just started the site.
volida 18y ago
15 million? nah...these days you have to worth 15 billion on the paper to get noticed
- crxnamja 18y ago
  ha. its just funny you can do something so under the radar and make a crap ton of money.
  - nostrademons 18y ago
    You've always been able to do that - most successful entrepreneurs exit for $5-20M and you'd never know they were millionaires unless they told you about their work history. I knew a couple of them growing up...
    - azharcs 18y ago
      I remember a quote from Donald Trump which said "If you don't tell people about your success, They will never know".
- dcurtis 18y ago
  At least this guy's 15 million is on green paper.
MaysonL 18y ago
And the latest post on the front page (from 3 days ago) is about WaMu bumping up their CD rates... although he does recommend checking out FDIC insurance coverage.
- aneesh 18y ago
  and? Money in WaMu CDs is still there, and insured as long as its less than 100K
  - lnguyen 18y ago
    You have to remember that it's up to $100k for all your accounts at a bank and not for each one. So say you had $75k in one and $50k in another. You'd be out $25k. So diversify your cash across banks (although that's harder and harder with all the acquisitions going on).
    - aneesh 18y ago
      > You'd be out $25k. Only if JP Morgan Chase goes under.
      - lnguyen 18y ago
        In this case, yes. JP Morgan was backing all the deposits at WaMu. But in general, don't count on this happening when a bank fails.
einarvollset 18y ago
Hope he didn't stick it in a WaMu account.
- furiouslol 18y ago
  Doesn't matter. JPM backs it now.
jreposa 18y ago
They seem to have peaked around 200k in traffic last month. My company is in a similar space as bankaholic, but overall I think we are growing to have much better content. It's hard to believe $15 million went for what is essentially a blog. Full disclosure: I'm a partner in http://www.mybanktracker.com/ http://www.mybanktracker.com/ Check it out if you have a sec. We haven't fully launched, but when we do I'll post a 'Checkout my startup' post to yc.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  15 million for a profitable website in a very large and lucrative space (as you know). This was a DCF acquisition - not a talent one.
fallentimes 18y ago
15 million for a one man operation is very impressive. Any idea how much fleaflicker was acquired for?
senthil_rajasek 18y ago
Bankrate has been acquiring companies at least since December 2007. Here is a short list, Dec 2007 - NCS (Nationwide Card Services) Dec 2007 - SavingforCollege.com Sept 2008 - CreditCardGuide.com http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-expands-its-credit/story.aspx?guid=817D0371-0BEE-4B83-BA56-E3A13CD1A68F http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-expands-i... Sept 2008 - Bankaholic.com http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-announces-acquisition-bankaholic/story.aspx?guid=81D26B92-2C5B-46C3-95C7-011D3BE5DA30 http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-announces... I listened to this call last Wednesday (about an hour long), http://investor.bankrate.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=59808 http://investor.bankrate.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=59808 Here is what I learned, - credit card "affiliates" who drive customers to credit card companies generate more revenue for bankrate.com - years of working together (atleast two of the companies listed above including bankaholic.com resulted in the deal) - organic google search results are certainly useful but I guess beyond that traditional "models" helped realize more revenues, this is purely my interpretation.

crxnamja 18y ago

damn. this is ridiculous and i knew him when he just started the site.

volida 18y ago

15 million? nah...these days you have to worth 15 billion on the paper to get noticed

crxnamja 18y ago
ha. its just funny you can do something so under the radar and make a crap ton of money.
- nostrademons 18y ago
  You've always been able to do that - most successful entrepreneurs exit for $5-20M and you'd never know they were millionaires unless they told you about their work history. I knew a couple of them growing up...
  - azharcs 18y ago
    I remember a quote from Donald Trump which said "If you don't tell people about your success, They will never know".
dcurtis 18y ago
At least this guy's 15 million is on green paper.

MaysonL 18y ago

And the latest post on the front page (from 3 days ago) is about WaMu bumping up their CD rates... although he does recommend checking out FDIC insurance coverage.

aneesh 18y ago
and? Money in WaMu CDs is still there, and insured as long as its less than 100K
- lnguyen 18y ago
  You have to remember that it's up to $100k for all your accounts at a bank and not for each one. So say you had $75k in one and $50k in another. You'd be out $25k. So diversify your cash across banks (although that's harder and harder with all the acquisitions going on).
  - aneesh 18y ago
    > You'd be out $25k. Only if JP Morgan Chase goes under.
    - lnguyen 18y ago
      In this case, yes. JP Morgan was backing all the deposits at WaMu. But in general, don't count on this happening when a bank fails.

einarvollset 18y ago

Hope he didn't stick it in a WaMu account.

furiouslol 18y ago
Doesn't matter. JPM backs it now.

jreposa 18y ago

They seem to have peaked around 200k in traffic last month. My company is in a similar space as bankaholic, but overall I think we are growing to have much better content. It's hard to believe $15 million went for what is essentially a blog. Full disclosure: I'm a partner in http://www.mybanktracker.com/ http://www.mybanktracker.com/ Check it out if you have a sec. We haven't fully launched, but when we do I'll post a 'Checkout my startup' post to yc.

fallentimes 18y ago
15 million for a profitable website in a very large and lucrative space (as you know). This was a DCF acquisition - not a talent one.

fallentimes 18y ago

15 million for a one man operation is very impressive. Any idea how much fleaflicker was acquired for?

senthil_rajasek 18y ago

Bankrate has been acquiring companies at least since December 2007. Here is a short list, Dec 2007 - NCS (Nationwide Card Services) Dec 2007 - SavingforCollege.com Sept 2008 - CreditCardGuide.com http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-expands-its-credit/story.aspx?guid=817D0371-0BEE-4B83-BA56-E3A13CD1A68F http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-expands-i... Sept 2008 - Bankaholic.com http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-announces-acquisition-bankaholic/story.aspx?guid=81D26B92-2C5B-46C3-95C7-011D3BE5DA30 http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-announces... I listened to this call last Wednesday (about an hour long), http://investor.bankrate.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=59808 http://investor.bankrate.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=59808 Here is what I learned, - credit card "affiliates" who drive customers to credit card companies generate more revenue for bankrate.com - years of working together (atleast two of the companies listed above including bankaholic.com resulted in the deal) - organic google search results are certainly useful but I guess beyond that traditional "models" helped realize more revenues, this is purely my interpretation.