Comments on: AOL Rumored To Be In Talks To Buy UK Social Travel Site WAYN For $200 Million

By: dragonfly

dragonfly — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:13:06 +0000

hey, i like to talk

By: Tourismus - Zukunft - Technologie

Tourismus - Zukunft - Technologie — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:05:00 +0000

WAYN for sale?…

Im November haben wir kurz über die Reisecommuntiy WAYN berichtet. In Deutschland scheint diese Plattform meiner Einschätzung nach zur Zeit nicht so präsent zu sein, aber international ist WAYN wohl ein Schwergewicht unter den Communiti…

By: Nick Wright

Nick Wright — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:52:08 +0000

Good luck to all concerned!
When we conceive, create and publish our ideas online we all want (without exception I would say) an exit on attractive multiples. It may not be the driving force but it is there nevertheless. Along with site statistics, it is the only measure by which we can judge how others see how successful our businesses are.
In addition, the founders can reward themselves for their endeavours and sacrifices; the VCs can set aside some of their profit to invest in yet more start-ups and other entrepreneurs can take inspiration.
Everyone is a winner.

exiva.com- share your life, treasure the privacy

By: Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:52:53 +0000

Thanks for your help on this Annika. You’ll note I carried WAYN’s position on the story, as you described it. My sources continue to tell me that sale talks are happening, and anyone reading the whole story on TCUK will note that even the lead VC on this has already indicated on his blog that a sale to a company the size of AOL would be the preferred option. As usual, stories like this may or may not come to fruition. Talks can go either way. We’re just here to report.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:40:50 +0000

I don’t think that this is true. I work closely in the social networking environment and don’t believe this story.

By: Marta

Marta — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:30:03 +0000

This is just a rumour – as far as I know WAYN website is not going to be sold to anyone.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:20:37 +0000

Doh! Techcrunch F***ed up!

Pull your finger out guys! UK TC is so lame.. up the game guys.. 1 post a day!

You can do better..

By: Annika Erskine - WAYN.com

Annika Erskine - WAYN.com — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:57:39 +0000

Further to the comments referred to in TechCrunch on Jan 16th we would like to confirm that WAYN has at no point had discussions with AOL and are not currently looking for a strategic sale.

WAYN is unique in that it is focused on the travel vertical which represents by far the largest online sector and we are excited about the new products we are introducing to our members and the prospect of developing into the mobile space with location based data and services being one of our core strengths. We benefit from a broad demographic with over 50% of our UK users over the age of 35. We are also one of the only social networks which is 18+ to improve the safety for our users.

Privacy and account interaction options are extremely comprehensive allowing users full control over mail, updates and contact from other members. Since the site opened up to all members as a free service with unlimited storage and no restrictions on contact we have enjoyed huge growth to more than 10m members worldwide and have invested heavily in launching new travel and lifestyle related services for them.

Our present focus is to create long term value and build a truly successful business. The WAYN vision is to become the world’s largest and most successful travel and lifestyle community portal and our management team is solely focused on achieving that goal.

If there are any questions regarding the WAYN travel/lifestyle services or to receive information about future announcements from WAYN please contact +44 (0) 20 7336 8088 or annika.erskine@wayn.com.

By: Lawrence Bradley

Lawrence Bradley — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 07:55:38 +0000

Good luck to them – its a pretty good site – they have near 6m uniques and growing quite quickly

By: Not a chance

Not a chance — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 07:04:08 +0000

Mike Butcher (TCUK) predicted that News Corp would buy LinkedIn and now that WAYN will be bought by AOL. I doubt it very much.

This sounds like a VC using Techcrunch as a public sounding board to test the waters. It also looks like the VC’s are starting to offload their investments before the credit crunch hits.

By: Crikey

Crikey — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:20:33 +0000

200 million USD for 3.6 million monthly uniques! Crikey mate! Totally bonkers.

By: Stumble'r

Stumble'r — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:10:17 +0000

The spam rumor is validated – check out the stumbleupon social bookmark reviews over the past years.

By: Philly

Philly — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:10:06 +0000

And then there’s http://asmallworld.net and http://extravigator.com which are upscale travel social sites — the complete polar opposites of WAYN.

By: tom

tom — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:46:29 +0000

The trick is “email spams” that are sent in the name of friend invites. This same trick was optimized by Flixster and many others.

By: Joe T

Joe T — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:35:59 +0000

The site is actually pretty well-done and nicely targeted at a young, mobile, international demographic. The big mystery is how they attracted so many users in so many countries so quickly.

Don’t know if it’s objectively worth $200 million, but this deal kind of makes sense for AOL.

What else are they going to do? Without an infusion of fresh excitement like this, AOL is a dead fish. They stopped publicly touting their subscriber numbers years ago, because subs have imploded. It makes sense for them to use what money they have to snap up sites like this.

By: isedb.com

isedb.com — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:02:31 +0000

AOL Rumored To Be In Talks To Buy UK Social Travel Site WAYN For $200 Million…

British site Where Are You Know? (WAYN), a social network for meeting fellow travelers, is rumored to be in negotiations with AOL to be bought for $200 million. That would make it one of the biggest Web 2.0 acquisitions of a UK startup after CBS’s $2…

By: ghosts

ghosts — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:59:14 +0000

I would be happy if my site sold for 1 million!

By: Adrian Keys

Adrian Keys — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:49:41 +0000

I remember comments here a few months ago to the effect that social networking was dead.

Seems however, in some segments…it is still considered a big strategic play.

By: Jeff T

Jeff T — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:36:22 +0000

AOL has in the last few months purchased 2 second tier sites, Yedda and now Wayn for amazingly high valuations. If they can generate $15 mil in revenues from both of these sites in ‘08 I will be amazed.

Who is running this company??? AOL is on the fast track to the dead pool.

By: darwin widjaja

darwin widjaja — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:36:11 +0000

I hope my site TripnTale can get half that money

By: Zuggu

Zuggu — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:28:01 +0000

200.000.000 …200.000.000 ?????

By: alex

alex — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:15:26 +0000

a social network for meeting fellow travelersDang commies.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:54:21 +0000

That site is one of the biggest spam generators in the country. Barely a week goes by without an email arriving in my inbox, purporting to be from some distant acquaintance but actually being a “WAYN request from x”. I hope it closes!

By: HGuide

HGuide — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:51:40 +0000

If they can sell their site for that much, then I can sell my blog with 1000 monthly uniques for about $500,000. Come talk to me AOL, I will give you half off that price.