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921 euros per square metre or the latterBoth are issued in rance by A nor Certi ication000 ounces due to maintenance work blastLea e a month to declare itsel is ridiculousSo I must make my system more easy to accessHowe er rance Telecom is not a partyto this dayoIn June and July uel consumption is bullishEach option has its ad antages and disad antagesStrategic ailureAnother lesson o the day JAny Recruiter knows hire a new employee represents a bet on the uture i e years a ter its creation, the rench price comparison engine Kelkoo will be trans erred to the U.S. Portal Yahoo! or 475 million euros, or all o the capital. "It was a project under discussion or two years." "We ha e always been contacts but we conducted in parallel with the projects or an introduction on the stock market," explains Pierre Gaudet, Director General Europe o Kelkoo. The two companies were engaged in exclusi e negotiations since Christmas.
Apart rom the acquisitions o ser ice pro iders such as Club Internet and LibertySur , it is the most important alue obtained by a company in Internet in rance (see table). Howe er, Pierre Chappaz explained last month that a de elopment o his company to 450 million euros was " ery pessimistic" ("Les Echos" o ebruary 27, 2004). "A sale in liquid is di erent rom a stock market reco ery paper," is justi ied today.
Kelkoo is present in nine European countries, including Britain, the rance and the Germany, and employs 250 people. Since its establishment in October 1999 rom a technology de eloped by Bull and Inria, Pierre Chappaz (ex - IBM) and Dominique idal (ex-Banexi entures) will lead hand the company's growth strategy. "They ha e built a ser ice or Internet users which leads leads quali ied merchants," said Michel Dahan, President o the Executi e Board o Banexi entures Partners. Taking ad antage o the bubble, they will throw considerable sums o money (EUR 60 million to arious in estors as Banexi entures, Inno acom, Netjuice, etc...) and will use these unds to acquire companies in Britain, Spain and Norway and establish little by little a European plat orm. The employees o the Group and their in estors are now rewarded: those who entered the outset realized a multiple o 5 on the proceeds o the sale, and those who entered in June 2000 a multiple o 3. "This pro es that there are technological talent in Europe, a European base gi es assets to Anglo-Saxon specialists and that the marriage between entrepreneurs and inanciers can be good!," said Michel Dahan.
To de elop synergies
In 2003, Kelkoo has posted a turno er o EUR 42.5 million, up 170 o er a year. He mo ed to EUR 19 million in the irst quarter o this year. Net income rose, he more than 11 million euros in 2003 and EUR 6 million in the irst quarter o 2004, according to the CEO o the group, Pierre Chappaz. Today, Kelkoo is already integrated in the part "shopping" or Yahoo! in three countries: the Spain, the Italy and the rance. "We will soon need to de elop synergies with Yahoo!, and I will personally take this project support," adds Pierre Gaudet. or rédéric Humbert Inno acom, an associate "Kelkoo will help monetize tra ic rom Yahoo!, which has big ambitions in e-commerce".
Between the acquisition o O erture, the specialist o the paid listings or 1.63 billion dollars in July 2003, Yahoo! strengthens in Europe in the comparison o prices on the Net. "Kelkoo is known to consumers on the Internet, unlike O erture a mark and a place o destination," says John Marcorm, international ice President o Yahoo!." But there are similarities in economic models o the two companies. We were already number one in the United States with Yahoo! Shopping, and we in Europe now with Kelkoo.
