Magazine publisher and website operator Time Out has struck a deal to acquire London events and ticketing company YPlan.
According to the Business Insider website, the deal is worth £1.6m (€1.8m/$2m).
YPlan, which was founded in 2012, attracted about £31m in investment since its launch. However, the company scaled back its US operations in February and trimmed a third of its workforce after generating a pre-tax loss of £6.2m in the year through it its 2015 results.
Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher, TV personality Stephen Fry, Google Ventures partner Tom Hulme and Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman were among the investors in the start-up.
Time Out said that the deal would help it to scale up its ecommerce business. The company launched an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in June and currently has a market capitalisation of £183m.
“Developing e-commerce and monetising our audience is an important element of our ambitious growth strategy,” Time Out Group chief executive Julio Bruno said.
“We acquired YPlan because its advanced technology will significantly accelerate this strategy. It will enable us to offer our large audience more online booking opportunities, whilst improving the user experience.”
YPlan's founders Rytis Vitkauskas and Viktoras Jucikas said in a statement: “Both companies are an excellent fit. We're both very proud to join with our team such an iconic brand and to be part of Time Out's next chapter.”
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