CMS advises Holtzbrinck Digital on sale of stake in MyHammer

Stuttgart/Munich – Holtzbrinck Digital, the Internet investment holding company within the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, has sold its majority stake in MyHammer Holding AG and its stake in MyHammer AG to HomeAdvisor GmbH, a subsidiary of the US-based IAC Group. The transaction is currently awaiting approval from the competition authorities. The purchase price was not disclosed.

A team headed by lead partner Dr Maximilian Grub advised Holtzbrinck Digital on all aspects of the transaction. Alongside corporate law aspects, issues relating to capital markets law also played a key role in the structuring and design of the transaction.

MyHammer Holding AG is the listed holding company of the MyHammer Group, which is headquartered in Berlin. It operates the MyHammer Internet portal through its MyHammer AG subsidiary. The portal enables private customers to advertise jobs to registered tradespeople free of charge. Some 17,000 such businesses are currently registered with the German market leader. They can use the portal to quote on the around 60,000 jobs posted each month.

US firm IAC operates the leading marketplace for home services in North America. Through Travaux.com, Werkspot.nl and Instrapro.it, it also has a network of similar service providers in Europe. IAC generated revenues of more than USD 3 billion last year. In addition to the MyHammer shares from Holtzbrinck Digital, IAC subsidiary HomeAdvisor also acquired the shares owned by the minority shareholder in MyHammer AG, Global Founders Fund. Once the sale of shares is complete, HomeAdvisor will hold around 70.1% of the shares in MyHammer Holding AG and 30.7% of the shares in MyHammer AG. HomeAdvisor also intends to acquire further MyHammer Holding AG shares in free float as part of a voluntary takeover offer.

CMS Hasche Sigle

Dr Thomas Meyding, Client Relationship Partner
Dr Maximilian Grub, Partner, Lead
Dr Sabina Krispenz, Senior Associate
Tobias Will, Associate, all M&A/Corporate
Dr Karsten Heider, Partner
Dr Bodo Schmidt-Schmiedebach, Senior Associate, both Stock Corporation and Capital Markets Law

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