AO’s acquisition of musicMagpie has now completed – and the latter’s co-founder Steve Oliver has reflected on the “tough life” of a standalone PLC.
musicMagpie was set up in a Stockport garage in 2007 by CEO Oliver and Walter Gleeson as a “lazy man’s eBay” – as described by Oliver to us in 2021 – and allowed people to trade in their CDs, DVDs and games for cash.
With developments in technology, it pivoted its offer towards phones and gadgets, and floated on London Stock Exchange’s junior AIM market in April 2021 with a share price of 193p.
That represented a market cap of £208 million. However musicMagpie’s share price would drop to almost 5p this year before fellow London-listed company AO stepped in with an offer of 9.07p in cash per share – valuing the business at just under £10m.
The deal completed last week – and Oliver is looking forward to life with Bolton-based electronics retailer AO, known for its white goods offer.
“I’m absolutely delighted to announce that last week we officially became part of the fantastic AO family as we concluded life as an independent PLC… the start of a new week and a new era for musicMagpie,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“Life was pretty tough at times as a standalone public business but I am exceptionally proud of my team’s passion and resilience in the face of both an extremely challenging macro-economic environment and competitor activity.
BNY Manchester figure joins Salford Business School Advisory Board
“Despite this, we remained focused on our strategy on becoming a leader in the circular economy, in particular in consumer technology, and we look forward with great anticipation at the huge opportunities we now have within our new group.”
He added: “My ‘fourth baby’ may have grown up (it’s nearly 18 now!) but it now has a new and hugely successful wider family to help me and the Magpie team look after it and allow it to flourish… onwards and upwards!”
The huge Manchester City fan referenced football in his post while thanking chair Martin Hellawell.
“A couple of thank yous. Firstly, to my chair and indeed mentor and friend (other than the Arsenal bit) Martin Hellawell; my relationship with him was a definite highlight of public life and I thank him for his enormous wisdom, counsel and experience.
“Secondly, to our advisors in this transaction, the excellent, wise and hard working teams at Shore Capital Markets and Addleshaw Goddard, who looked after us so well.
“All of the team (nobody more so than me!) are hugely excited to get going, and I am hugely grateful to John Roberts, Mark Higgins and the rest of the team at AO for the faith they have placed in us and indeed the enormous welcome they have given us in joining their wonderful group.”
Oliver continued: “But the biggest thank you of all goes to my outstanding Magpie colleagues, past and present, without whom we could not have done any of this without. This deal was all about finding a fantastic long-term home for the business, and a home for the single most important aspect of the business, its people and we have already witnessed how perfectly the shared culture and values that John has instilled in AO align with our own at Magpie.
“Both organisations are obsessed with caring about customers (AO’s 600k Trust Pilot reviews is one of the few that beats our mere 300k!) alongside caring deeply about our colleagues, communities and our general environment. A match made in heaven.”