The influential adviser whose economical solutions for every day folk gained popularity for his massively popular weekly email and website, founded in 2003, to fame on TV and radio. Lewis has now sold MoneySavingExpert.com to price comparison site MoneySupermarket.
Although the deal specifies that that site must remain editorially independent and resist the temptation to sell out to marketers keen to push their deals over others, the agreement will need to now be approved by the Office of Fair Trading.
The website has profited greatly from referrals to other sites, and the takeover was likely to have been as a result of 59% of the £16 million earned from this coming directly from MoneySupermarket.com. According to the BBC, 39 million users who visited the site helped to contribute to the profits by following links to other shopping websites.
Lewis will get £35 million, some of which he says will be donated to charity, and shares in the site valued at £25 million. As part of a deal that would make shrewd money experts proud, following a 3 year gap he is likely to be eligible for another £27 million’s worth of cash and shares.
“In keeping with the site’s aims, when the deal completes, £10 million will go to charity, including £1 million to Citizens Advice, which is facing terrible funding cuts,” he said.
“MoneySavingExpert.com has become part of people’s daily lives, far bigger than the man who founded it, and now is the right time for it to stand on its own two feet.”
Lewis started his website after gaining popularity from a small-scale financial advice programme which led to a regular column in the Sunday Express. The website now has 13 million monthly visitors as well as seven million subscribers to the weekly tips email.
Lewis rejected an offer from Lloyds TSB to buy the site from him in 2007, saying that he ‘didn’t trust banks’. Fair enough, Martin, fair enough.
Main image: Getty
