David Harrison & co have
sold The Search Works to online marketing company TradeDoubler for a cool £56m.....For those not au fait with the story behind TSW, the company was originally called Website Promotional Services (WSPS), based in Telford and was the brainchild of David Harrison and Simon Conroy.
Back in 1999, their big idea was automated bid-management software that would make running search campaigns across Google, Overture and Miva a great deal easier and more efficient. BidBuddy went on to be hugely successful, as did their agency, after David handed over the reins to Overture veterans Nick Hynes and Jim Brigden in 2004 and the company underwent a huge makeover.
Speculation of a sale has always been on the cards, but David always let it be known whoever bought it had to have big plans on what to do with the company.
This marriage makes perfect sense as both focus on direct response, with a keen eye on return on investment. TradeDoubler gets search technology and TSW gets an immediate footprint in 16 countries and a foray into display advertising.
TSW are certainly no DoubleClick, aQuantive or 24/7 in terms of global reach but isn’t £56m a bit of a bargain for the UK’s number one SEM?
And who’s next............the guys from Warrington?
