Boo.com owner made $100m – but not from Boo
Summary
WRI was picked up by private equity firm Hellman and Friedman, to the surprise of many who assumed a travel giant such as Expedia or Priceline would make the acquisition. A three-time serial entrepreneur — he set up his first company, Raven Computing, in Dublin at age 22 — Nolan stepped down as WRI chief executive in advance of the planned IPO and was a non-executive director by the time of last week’s sale. Nolan says WRI “very nearly crossed the line” and came a hair’s breadth from being sold to either Priceline or Expedia — he won’t say which — but the final offer never appeared. It has great demographics, 20 and 30 something travellers, and there’s a lot of possibility upselling to that demographic.” He adds: “When I left (as CEO), we had a 65 per cent EBITDA margin.” He thinks it likely that WRI’s new owners will hang on to it until the market improves, and then take it public. Plus, the former notoriety of the web address drew in plenty of publicity for WRI from the media, without the negative associations for users.