Blackstone to pay €5.5bn online RE classifieds specialist Scout24

German digital marketplace operator Scout24 has accepted an improved take-over offer of €5.5bn from Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman. The two private equity firms upped a previous bid of €43.50 per share to €46 per share. Sout24 has seen enormous growth during Germany’s real estate boom in recent years and Reuters is calling it the largest ever takeover of a listed Germany company by a private equity firm. Scout24 provides online real estate and automobile classified ads. Shareholders turned down the initial bid, believing that its biggest competitors, which includes Axel Springer SE and Ebay Inc, could be willing to pay more. The classified ads portion of the media sector is proving to be the most profitable part of numerous media houses at the moment, making a stand-alone offering such as Scout24 particularly valuable.