Fairfax Media will acquire New Zealand's tender notification service provider TenderLink.com, in a deal worth $NZ21.6 million, the company said in Australia.
TenderLink is the southern hemisphere's largest online tender or "e-tender" company, Fairfax said.
TenderLink is a tender notification service and provider of electronic tendering solutions using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.
"TenderLink fits our strategy of acquiring high growth transactional businesses that provide services to the small to medium enterprise market," Fairfax Digital chief executive officer Jack Matthews said in a statement to the ASX.
"Combining TenderLink with our digital network, this already profitable business has considerable further potential for growth," he said.
The maximum purchase price represents an earnings multiple of eight times, based upon the anticipated 2011 financial year earning before earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation of TenderLink.com.
The takeover is subject to conditions, but is expected to be completed within 45 days.
Fairfax also runs a range of other internet-based businesses, including My Career, Domain, Drive, RSVP, Essentially Baby, InvestSMART, Stayz, but its most successful is the NZ auction site Trade Me.
TenderLink is the largest tender notification network on both sides of the Tasman, listing over 50,000 new tender opportunities annually.
It claims that a subscription to TenderLink will access 99.9 percent of all publicly advertised tenders published throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as provide links to tenders published in over 300 e-tendering portals it provides to procurers.