The decisive moments of our economic life

The Swedish background EQT paid a few days ago 2,000 million euros for Adevintacompany specialized in classified advertisement portals.

In the background you can see a pattern in the purchases that EQT has made on Spanish soil. He has bought something that Silicon Valley could never create: the exact moment in which the Spaniards change his life.

Why is it important. ADEVINTA Spain (Fotocasa, Milanuncios, Infojobs, Cars.net) It is not a company that competes against large technological ones. Rather it complements them.

• When we look for a floor, work or sell the car, we are not going to Amazon, neither to Instagram or Google.
• We go to Spanish portals that have been dominating those important moments of our economic life for decades.

In figures. Among the six portals …

• They receive 146 million visits per month.
• And add 18 million unique users.
• They generate 225 million euros a year.
• With just over 1,600 employees.

Its valuation, of 2,000 million euros, places them above many startups that presume to be disruptive.

The context. EQT knows the business and land well. Controls 18% idealist after sell it to Cinven for 2.9 billion in 2024. It also has the European University and Freepik As a majority shareholder.

Its strategy is clear: buy the decisive moments of Spanish digital life.

Between the lines. This operation values national technological success. The Spanish portals have resisted the arrival of giants, mostly Americans, because they understood that it is not enough to have the best technology if you do not understand the cultural factor.

In this case, the way in which Spaniards look for work, house, car, motorcycle.

The threat. For years there was fear that Google, Amazon or Facebook swept this Spanish ecosystem. It did not happen. The Marketplaces premises built something more valuable than algorithms: trust, cultural proximity.

When we want to sell something, we have turned to Milanuncios Oa Wallapop (outside this equation, but also Spanish). Vinted is also dominating second -hand fashion, but “only” that niche. Facebook Marketplace never went too far in our country.

Yes, but. Consolidation always has its risks. EQT adds Adevinta to his participation in idealist. That is, it concentrates power in the portals that the Spaniards use the most. Less competition that usually derives to upward prices for publishing ads.

The money trail. Blackstone and Permira bought Adevinta For 14,000 million in 2024. They now sell Spain for 2,000 million, staying with Germany, France, Holland and Italy. It is the classic strategy: chop and sell in parts to maximize value. A typical movement of investment funds.

EQT promises to boost innovation and AI in the portals, but its true business is another: better monetize the moments in which the Spaniards need to change their lives. And those moments, by definition, cannot be shaken from the outside.

In Xataka | Buy second -hand car: what to look and take into account before buying

Outstanding image |