They Got Acquired - 7x revenue for a content business

May 28, 2024
​Read on web​

Susan Wagner snagged a simple domain for her content website back in 1996: Honeymoons.com.

If you know the value of simple, aged domains, you’re probably drooling over that one.

Especially since Wagner and her partners Tom Curtin and Martin O’Connell spent the next 27 years growing the site, primarily by publishing helpful content about the honeymoon industry. Wagner had expertise in that topic after producing the honeymoon section of Modern Bride magazine for a decade.

In late 2022, they heard from someone who wanted to buy the business.

It was Jim Campbell of Camp Media, which operated WeddingGoals.com. He was interested in the SEO and branding power of their domain.

The original Honeymoons.com team was interested, but not ready to move immediately. “I told him to give me a call if they were ever going to sell,” Campbell said.

He got that call a few months later, in early 2023. “Our team was getting older,” co-founder Curtin said, “and we were not keeping up with the leaps in technology.”

They ended up selling for 6 figures at 7x revenue. That’s a high multiple for a content site, which typically sell for about 3x revenue — a worthwhile investment for a strategic buyer who wanted that aged domain.

Check out our full story on the growth and sale of Honeymoons.com:

​An aged domain and a strategic buyer helped this content site sell for 7x revenue​

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Behind the business (of TGA)

For the last few weeks, when I sit down at my desk each day, I've done the most important thing on my work list first — regardless of what's on my plate or in my inbox.

My most important thing right now is getting more data into our M&A intelligence platform, so we can open it up to users.

As a result, emails have gone unanswered and there are a bunch of other things on my list that I wish were done by now.

But the most important thing is moving along far more quickly than before...

And that means I end each day feeling more content.

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​

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P.S. Enjoyed this post from Elizabeth Yin at HustleFund: Should you set up your exit before you start your company?​

The ideas she shared are from Joshua Lee, who sold his SaaS business to Gusto in 2021. Here's our story about his sale:

​This tax pro built a SaaS to help small businesses get R&D tax credits, then sold to Gusto​