Purplebricks founder considers takeover bid
The founder of Purplebricks is reported to be considering making an offer for the troubled online estate agency.
Sky News has revealed that Michael Bruce is looking for prospective advisers to work with him on the bid.
Bruce exited the company as part of a £43.7m share deal with investor Axel Springer in 2019. He stood down as chief executive after a period of difficult trading and ended his involvement after seven years.
He sold his 11% stake for £33.5m, with Axel Springer spending a further £10.2m as the investor doubled its stake in the business.
Bruce’s next venture was online property portal Boomin, which was forced to call in liquidators following a lack of new funding at the end of October.
Around £6m of equity was failed to be raised, resulting in the company’s 65 employees being told the next steps were liquidation.
Boomin moved to a fee-paying model in April, the timing of which Bruce said was not “our friend”. He placed ‘significant sums’ of his own money into Boomin, which once had 8,000 agents on its platform.
Sky News says that one property industry source told them an industrial logic may combined Boomin technology with Purplebricks.
The Solihull-based agency announced on February 17 it was set to commence a strategic review, which may result in the sale of the whole company or part of the business.
Yesterday, it revealed it had received “several credible expressions of interest” and wants to fully explore the option of a sale by entering a formal sales process.
