LendingTree to Acquire ValuePenguin

LendingTree announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Value Holding Inc., the parent company of ValuePenguin.com, a personal finance website that offers consumers objective analysis on a variety of financial topics from insurance to credit cards.

“We are thrilled to add ValuePenguin’s talented team and expertise to our portfolio,” said Doug Lebda, Founder and CEO of LendingTree. “Our recent QuoteWizard acquisition was our first step toward leadership in insurance customer acquisition.  Adding ValuePenguin’s high-quality content and SEO capability to QuoteWizard’s proprietary technology and carrier network will set us apart and enable us to provide immense value to carriers and agents. Both businesses will benefit from LendingTree’s strong brand and extensive marketing capabilities.  We are in a great position to achieve further scale in the insurance space as well as the broader financial services industry.”

Jonathan Wu, co-founder and CEO of ValuePenguin added, “The combination of ValuePenguin’s high-quality organic traffic with LendingTree’s sophisticated marketing platform and direct carrier relationships will significantly accelerate both of our businesses beyond what we could do independently. We are delighted to join the LendingTree team and are excited about what our two companies will be able to do together in the coming years.”

The acquisition has a total consideration of $105m paid in cash at closing, subject to customary adjustments.  The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019 subject to customary closing conditions. LendingTree intends to fund the acquisition through cash on hand and by drawing on its existing credit agreement.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2018, ValuePenguin generated approximately $12.5m in revenue and $9m in adjusted EBITDA.  LendingTree expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to 2019 adjusted earnings per share.

Bottom Line: A penguin with the price tag of $105m .

Recall insurance-related acquisitions here.