
Bankaholic sells to Bankrate for 15 million and no one noticed - jasonlbaptiste
http://okdork.com/2008/09/26/exclusive-bankaholic-sells-to-bankrate-for-15-million-and-no-one-noticed/
======
senthil_rajasek
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-i...](http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-expands-its-
credit/story.aspx?guid=817D0371-0BEE-4B83-BA56-E3A13CD1A68F)

Sept 2008 - Bankaholic.com

[http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-
announces...](http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bankrate-inc-announces-
acquisition-bankaholic/story.aspx?guid=81D26B92-2C5B-46C3-95C7-011D3BE5DA30)

I listened to this call last Wednesday (about an hour long),
<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.

------
jreposa
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/> 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
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.

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

~~~
crxnamja
ha. its just funny you can do something so under the radar and make a crap ton
of money.

~~~
nostrademons
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
I remember a quote from Donald Trump which said "If you don't tell people
about your success, They will never know".

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

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

~~~
furiouslol
Doesn't matter. JPM backs it now.

------
MaysonL
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
and? Money in WaMu CDs is still there, and insured as long as its less than
100K

~~~
lnguyen
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
> You'd be out $25k.

Only if JP Morgan Chase goes under.

~~~
lnguyen
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.

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

