United Internet acquires equity interest of around 25 percent in ePages
- Europe’s market leader in online shop software to become technology partner of 1&1
- E-shop software rounds out product portfolio of cloud application
Montabaur, February 19, 2014. United Internet AG has acquired – via United Internet Ventures AG – a stake of around 25 percent in the e-commerce specialist ePages in the course of a capital increase.
Based in Hamburg, Germany, ePages GmbH is Europe’s market leader in online shop software for small and mid-size companies with 80,000 customers. The cloud solution of ePages enables merchants with no prior experience to create professional online shops. The solutions are suitable for a variety of company sizes and are currently marketed via 100 partner companies (e.g. hosting providers, telecommunication and logistics companies and business directories). This enables partners to tap new e-business revenue streams without having to develop their own shop systems.
In addition to the equity stake, ePages and United Internet’s subsidiary 1&1 have agreed a long-term cooperation contract for the use of ePages solutions. In the course of this cooperation, there will be a joint technology platform in future for the 1&1 e-shops, which will offer all the features merchants need for successful online business.
“Our new investor is also an ideal partner for us to drive our internationalization and launch our market entry in the USA,” explains Wilfried Beeck, ePages CEO.
“Our stake in ePages is an investment in a partner whose many years of expertise in the field of e-commerce have helped establish it as the European market leader with products in an attractive growth market. The e-shop software also complements our own product portfolio of cloud applications for small to mid-size companies,” states Dr. Oliver Mauss, Management Board member of United Internet Ventures AG, in his assessment of the reasons for the investment.