Liverpool entrepreneur Pearson nets a fortune
LIVERPOOL-born technology entrepreneur Mark Pearson, has sold his online discount company business Marko Media for up to £55m.
Mr Pearson, 34, who grew up on a council estate in the city and worked in his mother’s flower shop before training as a chef, has sold his London-based company Markco Media, which runs the MyVoucherCodes, to listed mobiole money technology provider Monitise.
He will receive an initial £24.5m, a further £2.5m of consideration held back for two years, payable in Monitise shares and an earn-out consideration of up to an additional £28m payable in shares on the basis of retention and “achievement of aggressive earn-out targets” over the next two years.
MyVoucherCodes is a voucher, coupon and discount deals site that works with 80% of the UK’s leading online retailers and counts Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Debenhams, Thomson Holidays, Argos, Currys, Sky, B&Q, Tesco, Walmart, Target, Amazon, The Home Depot, and Carrefour among the merchant brands it works with.
Mr Pearson said: “Mobile is driving a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour and increasingly playing a leading role in the buying decisions of consumers as they use their smartphones and tablets to research and buy.
“Brands are realising just how important it is to adopt a mobile-first approach to getting in front of existing and new customers. Given this, we are incredibly excited about becoming part of the growing Mobile Money ecosystem that Monitise is building across financial services, payment processors, mobile network operators and retailers.”
Monitise chief commercial officer Lee Cameron said: “Markco Media has established itself as a leading player in creating digital solutions that link consumers to retailers via innovation, marketing and technology.
“Buying rather than building these assets brings Monitise a marketing content delivery platform that has been developed over almost eight years, an instant network of marketing content partners, and a platform scalable across geographies.”
