Financial comparison site, Canstar has acquired fellow financial comparison service RateCity in "a strategic move to build scale and increase investment in technology and data."
Canstar has greater scale and product breadth in assessing financial services offerings, while its sister business Canstar Blue has added diversification into the energy and telco sectors.
Canstar, which has been comparing products and services since its origins as a privately owned financial research agency 1992, now covers 775 brands across more than 30 different finance categories.
RateCity is a newer smaller business – though this is, nevertheless, expected to become a significant signing for Canstar – bringing its coverage of 13,000 financial products from more than 250 providers into the mix.
In its media release announcing the deal yesterday, Canstar claimed that "the combined company's capabilities will bolster the group’s two-sided marketplace".
That is, more potential customers combing through a larger comparison sites are expected to attract and deepen relationships with paying customers, usually service providers.
This line was echoed in comments attributed to Canstar's managing director and CEO, Andrew Spicer: "Bringing together these two strong brands gives us the ability to combine our tech capabilities and build more comprehensive, more dynamic, data-rich digital platforms."
Spicer also referred to RateCity's distribution technology as a positive factor behind the acquisition, means we're well positioned to be the place to come for all things personal finance."
The Canstar and RateCity brands will continue to operate separately in the market, although the two businesses will be sharing tips and back-office information systems.
As a result of the transaction, media company Nine has fully disposed of its 50 per cent stake in RateCity. Other terms of the transaction have been kept confidential.