MediaNews Group And The Hearst Corporation Acquire 80% Of Kaango For $20 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Nov 15, 2007

Yesterday a 10-Q was filed with the SEC regarding MediaNews Group and The Hearst Corporation buying 80% of classifieds website Kaango. The cost of the 80% ownership was roughly $20 million.

MediaNews Group is the fourth largest newspaper company and is headquartered in Denver, CO. And MediaNews represents roughly 58 daily newspapers and 100 non-daily publications.

MediaNews Group signed Kaango last June to provide their newspaper companies a classifieds platform. This is the same case for The Hearst Corporation — which also previously signed Kaango up for a classifieds platform deal as well.

“Kaango will be held by a newly formed LLC, which is 50 percent owned by each of the two. The remaining 20 percent of Kaango is owned by its founders and is subject to a call option and is expected to be purchased in the future, the company said,” wrote Rafat Ali.