GrabOne founder Shane Bradley’s $12m payday

Shane Bradley sold his final 25% stake in IdeaHQ to APN for $A3.20 million ($NZ4.18 million), the Australian media company’s half year interim half-year report reveals.

That was less that the amount APN was carrying on its books for its non-controlled stake ($A4.37 million).

But there is also a potentially big plus side.

The ASX filing says there is a further $A6.18 million ($NZ8.08 million) payable “should the businesses achieve certain predetermined performance targets”.

That means Mr Bradley stands to make up to $NZ12.26 million from the sale.

He was the sole owner of IdeaHQ, the holding company for deal site Grab One and Trade Me rival Sella, before Herald publisher APN bought a 25% stake in February 2011.

APN subsequently bought another 50% of the company then, late last year, the final 25% – whose price it has finally revealed in its latest ASX filing. (APN’s early filings note the first two buy-ins, but not their value).

Speaking to NBR ONLINE today, Mr Bradley would not comment on specific financials, but said he had financial incentive to stay on as GrabOne CEO – specifically, that the earn-out period covered up until the end of next year.

While fast growing companies like Xero can use shares to pay or part-pay for new acquisitions, that option is not so attractive if you are dealing with a sharemarket struggler like APN.

Sensibly, Mr Bradley went for an all-cash deal.

Slim earnings
How is he tracking toward his earn-out?

Mr Bradley won’t say.

But APN’s August 17 ASX filing does at least report the deal site is cash positive. It says GrabOne New Zealand ebitda was $A1.2 million for the first six months to June 30, with earnings expected to double in the second half.  

Mr Bradley told NBR that gross revenue was in the range of $NZ9 million to $NZ10 million a month locally (GrabOne also operates in Australia, where it is No 2 in the market), or $108 to $120 million a year.

APN says GrabOne’s share of the NZ daily deal market has increased from 65% to 75% over the past year as it parlayed its first-mover advantage into market dominance (by the time Groupon finally arrived downunder, many thought its look and feel was aping GrabOne, not the other way around).