IAC’s home services marketplace, HomeAdvisor, owned by media mogul Barry Diller, and customer-review site Angie’s List confirmed they reached a deal values Angie’s List at more than $500 million, according to WSJ.
Shares of the e-commerce site skyrocketed 43 percent after The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Angie is looking to combine with IAC’s HomeAdvisor to create a new publicly traded company.
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The new company will be called ANGI Homeservices Inc., the companies said in a press release.
The deal brings to an end two years of wooing. In 2015 Barry Diller made a hostile $512 million bid for Angie’s List but was rejected. Angie’s List said the bid “dramatically undervalue” the company.
The combined company will enjoy a total of 22 million monthly visitors and 211,000 service providers. ANGI Homeservices made an about $17 billion in transaction value over the last 12 months for its service providers.
The deal Angie’s List shareholders have the option to get one Class A common share of the newly formed company or $8.50 in cash for each share they own. The cash payout would be capped at $130 million, with the deal expected to be completed in the fourth quarter.
IAC Chief Executive Officer Joey Levin told Bloomberg that the merger is key to the combined company’s transition from a recommendation platform to an on-demand marketplace.
“Home services is one of the last commerce categories where the vast majority of the market is still offline. That’s a huge opportunity,” Levin said.
The merger is expected to close in final quarter of this year. Afterward, IAC will own at about 90% of the stock of ANGI Homeservices’ equity value, depending on how many shareholders take the cash payout.
IAC says the combined company will have a target five-year compound annual growth rate of revenue between 20 percent to 25 percent and its target adjusted EBITDA margin will be about 35 percent.
