The Mail on Sunday yesterday reported that Emoov has made an audacious bid to merge with Countrywide.
Last week Emoov founder and chief executive Russell Quirk, writing exclusively in EYE, revealed his interest in Countrywide but went no further than to say he was waiting by the phone.
Yesterday, the Mail ran its story under the headline “Emoov bids for ailing Countrywide”. It claimed that Quirk has “renewed unpublicised overtures he made last October when he initiated merger talks”.
The paper said that Quirk proposed that Emoov take shares in Countrywide and combine forces with its 850 branches.
Countrywide has not, however, responded, with a spokesperson telling the Mail: “We are not in conversations.”
Quirk told EYE that he considered the Mail’s headline to be “interesting”.
He said: “I’ve confirmed to them that I believe there’s a huge opportunity for collaboration here and that ‘old meets new’ is an exciting prospect and would rejuvenate City appetite for Countrywide if we were involved.”
Last Monday Countrywide issued a profits warning, sending its shares into freefall and wiping millions of pounds off its value. On Saturday, according to Countrywide itself, its loans of nearly £200m were due to be ‘stress tested’.
This morning, Countrywide shares are due to start trading at just 37.65p.
Quirk can’t make profit with Emoov and never will. You and I could make an underbid for Countrywide.
He will do anything for publicity.
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Announced in the business pages of that heavyweight read, The Mail on Sunday 🙂
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Interesting that as he starts talking about buying/merging/being interested in Countrywide, their shares take an extra hard nosedive! Its a shame Emoov arent able to gain market share through natural growth, hard work and expanding their level of customer service. Buying or merging seems to be the only way…..isnt that what Countrywide did?
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Russell, after all you said about the high street and local knowledge having nothing to offer, and our wonderful debates… how could you?!
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Well that’s the end of that little bromance…
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I agree with Chris, why would an ‘Onliner’ be interested in buying 850 failing High Street offices? It goes utterly against the grain of all the nonsense they spout?
One of the single biggest reasons Countrywide are failing is the state of the economy, not the threat of the highly ineffective online model.
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Quirky is recognising that as the market gets harder, prices start to drop, property takes longer to sell… potential vendors will start to think twice about the “gamble your money model”.
The easy seller’s market is coming to an end… and with that so will the hype around the Online Only Model, assuming High Street Agents, now promo the fact they have been Online before PB & Emoov were in school pants and we have fantastic front line staff to back up the digital services.
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Has anyone else started typing their exact thoughts only to discover, when reading back, that it’s not a good idea to hit ‘post comment’ through fear of jail time?
#EverytimeISeeARussellQuirkStory
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If I get jail time – As long as I get an internet connection, I can be an online agent for a while… “Welcome to the forum B-Block Estates” my “Local Experts” will get you in any home you fancy. You would be too scared not to use us will be the message.
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Ha, brilliant!
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About 6 times this morning already! The one about Rock and Gravel Slag in the Boulder-mobile was just one.
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Once upon a time, when the market hardened previously, RQ’s high street branch offered a house price guarantee! then ‘phoenixed’ before claims were made.
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