Angie's List is considering selling to IAC for $500M

IAC would combine Angie's List with HomeAdvisor, creating a $700M company

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IAC wants to get its hands on local business review website Angie's List. Like, really wants it. And while its advances may have been rebuffed at first, it looks like now Angie's List is at least considering the offer.

On Wednesday, IAC revealed that is has reached out to the Board of Directors at Angie's List to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company's common stock for $8.75 per share. With 58.52 million shares, at that price the acquisition would be worth $512 million.

While IAC wants it to be an all-cash deal, the company also said that it is willing to consider a combination of Angie's List with IAC's HomeAdvisor business through a tax-free stock-for-stock exchange.

Once IAC got its hands on the company, it revealed that it would combine with local home services marketplace HomeAdvisor, creating a company with over $700 million in revenue, $35 billion in gross transaction value and over an estimated 15 million unique visitors per month.

There is no indication as to what would happen to the Angie's List brand, or any of its employees, if the transaction were to go through.

"The combination of the Angie's List brand, highly trafficked website and its network of paying service professionals with our HomeAdvisor business, the category leader which has seen eight consecutive quarters of accelerating growth in its core U.S. business, would cement our position as the premier home services platform," Joey Levin, CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp, said in a statement.

"We are fully committed to this transaction and are confident that both Angie's List stockholders and our stockholders will recognize the value of our proposal."

This is not the first time that IAC has made overtures to Angie's List about wanting to buy it, as was revealed in the letter from Levin to the board. It previously reached out about a month ago, but was rebuffed.

"We were disappointed to hear that the Board is not interested in further engaging with us regarding a strategic transaction involving Angie's List. We continue to believe a transaction involving our companies has a compelling strategic rationale, and we are confident we are well-positioned to swiftly consummate a transaction that will be in the best interests of Angie's List stockholders," the letter says.

It then goes on to outline the same rationale for the acquisition that was outlined above.

Here's the interesting part, though: despite having rejected IAC's earlier proposal, now Angie's List revealed that it is at least going to consider the offer.

"The Angie's List Board of Directors and management team are committed to acting in the best interests of all Angie's List shareholders," the company wrote.

"Consistent with its fiduciary duties, the Angie's List Board, in consultation with its independent financial and legal advisors, will carefully review and evaluate IAC's proposal to determine the course of action that the Board believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Angie's List shareholders."

The timing of this proposal is interesting, as it comes as Angie's List is starting to face some stiff competition.

Of course there's always Yelp and Craiglist, but now it also has to deal with Amazon, which launched a professional services provider in March. Called Amazon Home Service, it launched with 700 services categories, including iPhone repair, yoga classes, car maintenance, TV wall-mounting, car battery installation and house cleaning.

The biggest threat to Angie's List, though, is probably Thumbtack, which now has over five million projects requested every year in over 1,000 categories. The company operates in all 50 states, and now has over 200,000 unique paying professionals. Thumbtack now generates $1 billion in revenue for independent small businesses every year and has have more paying pros on its site than both Angie’s List and Yelp combined.

It also just raised a $125 million funding round, giving it a $1.3 billion valuation.

VatorNews has to IAC for further comment. We will update this story if we learn more.

(Image source: angieslist.com)