Silver Lake buying UK property portal for $3 billion

Private equity firm Silver Lake has agreed to acquire British online property portal Zoopla for around $3 billion in cash, or 490 pence per share (31% premium). Sellers would include Daily Mail & General Trust, which holds a 29.9% stake.

Why it matters: Because this appears to be the largest acquisition ever of a British e-commerce/services company, topping Ctrip's 2016 purchase of Skyscanner.

Sellers would include Daily Mail & General Trust, which holds a 29.9% stake.

This isn't the first time Silver Lake has done business with DMGT in the property tech space. Just two months ago, it and Battery Ventures agreed to buy EDR from DMGT for $205 million.

Bottom line from Reuters:

"Along with rival Rightmove, ZPG dominates online searches for property sale and rentals in Britain, with Zoopla’s sites carrying listings for nearly 15,000 estate agent branches. Analysts and bankers said the ZPG sale was likely to be used as a price benchmark for other M&A involving such portals and comparison websites."