Tamedia snaps up Ricardo e-commerce firm

The group is best known in Switzerland for its “online marketplace” ricardo.ch”, as well as its car platform autoricardo,ch, and other online merchandising sites, including one for general classifieds, olx.ch.

Tamedia is one of the leading media groups in Switzerland with ownership of German-language newspapers such as Tages Anzeiger, Der Bund and SonntagsZeitung and French dailies such as the Tribune de Genève, 24heures and Le Matin.

It also owns the 20 Minutes commuter papers, published in German (20 Minuten), French and Italian (20 Minuti) versions, and operates online websites for its newspaper titles.

But it already owns other advertising portals on the web, such as homegate.ch, jobs.ch and car4you.ch.

“The acquisition of the Ricardo Group is a decisive strategic step forward for us,” Tamedia’s CEO Christoph Tonini said in a statement.

“We want to develop Ricardo's core business through networking effects with (our) own media such as 20minuten.ch and to leverage synergies between the rapidly growing general classified platforms olx.ch and tutti.ch.”

The Ricardo Group is headquartered in Zug and has 190 employees in Switzerland, plus a development team of 30 in France, Tamedia said.

The group’s revenue was around 40 million francs in 2014.

Takeover of the group is subject to approval by the Swiss Competition Commission.