Tech start-up MacTalk turns to online bidders for sale

The founder of Australian technology website MacTalk is selling the business via an online auction website instead of via traditional channels.

Anthony Agius, who started the site around six years ago, is hoping to attract offers in excess of $125,000 for MacTalk via flippa.com but admits he is looking for a quick sale.

“The website allows for auctions but it’s going to be sold to the first person who offers the $125,000” Aguis says. “As soon as I can see the money in my account the site is the buyer’s to do as they please”.

He first thought of selling the site a few months ago and began contacting publishers and digital media agencies but got little response.

“I contacted ACP Magazines, CBS Interactive, Haymarket Media, Nextmedia, Future Publishing, ITwire, IDG but none of them got back to me,” he says.

Aguis got his first response yesterday.

“I was contacted by Niche & Allure just last night so I’ll soon sit down with them and hear what they have to say” he says.

“I don’t consider myself a businessman. I didn’t go into this with a plan to grow the site and sell it for a profit, so I wasn’t sure how to go about it.”

When asked about the use of the website to sell the business Aguis says: “I didn’t know how you sell something like this. So I did a Google search and found flippa.com and now it’s up for sale there.”

Agius says the new owners will have full control of the site from day one.

“I have put a lot of effort into this so of course I want it to continue to do well,” he says.

“But I won’t be interfering with it. If I was buying a business I wouldn’t want the old owners telling me what to do so I won’t be doing that to them.”

The site attracts around 1.5 million page impressions per month, resulting in more than $90,000 in revenue last year.

Agius says MacTalk’s main costs include around $1800 per month for contributors and a $100 per week podcast. The website is hosted free of charge.

“Some might consider that successful, some may not.” Agius says.

“For me, it’s certainly enough to live off and I really enjoy working from my living room in my underwear rather than going to a real job every day.”

He adds on his blog: “After such a significant financial, emotional and personal investment, I’m not going to walk away without some sort of redundancy package.”

Agius says as well as established revenue and website traffic the most important asset the new owners will get is the network of contributors.

“I currently have about 30 people contributing content and helping out with the site on a weekly basis,” he said.

“Most only do two to five hours per week, they love technology and really enjoy researching and writing about it hence they’re happy to do it for little or no pay.

“If the site stays similar to what is, stays Australian and doesn’t become some sort of content farm I’m very confident all the contributors will stay on.”

Agius, who previously worked as an IT administrator at RMIT University, says he’s not sure what he wants to do next.

“Despite spending all my time recently on Macs and Apple products I’m intrigued by lots of different areas of technology so maybe I’ll start writing about some other areas,” Agius says.