iVillage buys out Tesco

Assumes control of UK site

By Drew Cullen • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 31st March 2005 11:31 GMT

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iVillage, the American website for women, is buying its UK namesake, iVillage.co.uk, from Tesco. Terms are undisclosed.

The two companies teamed up in 2000, with Tesco promising to commit £18m over three years to iVillage.co.uk. In 2003, Tesco bought iVillage Inc's stake in i-Village UK and signed a 20-year deal to license iVillage content and trademarks and copyright.

Douglas Cormack, iVillage boss, thinks the new deal will "generate increased value for our stockholders moving forward".

Maybe so, but it marks a u-turn on 2003, when he hailed the now defunct licensing deal as "another example of how we are not only executing on our subscription and content-license strategy domestically, but also internationally. Our agreement with Tesco creates a new stream of revenue for iVillage and more deeply establishes our position as a leader in supplying women's content".

Tesco is the UK's biggest internet retailer, correction, it is the biggest retailer, full stop. It carries a link to iVillage on its website, which, we assume, will live on for a while longer. ®