Quickr may buy a major stake in CommonFloor for a whopping Rs 330 crore

Online classifieds provider Quikr is close to acquiring a majority stake in realty portal CommonFloor according to three people familiar with the ongoing negotiations, with the pay-out estimated to be worth about Rs 330 crore ($50 million) said one of the people.

The potential deal between the two companies — which count New York-based investment firm Tiger Global Management as a common investor — is slated to close soon, with talks having begun nearly five months ago.

"While the management of CommonFloor is looking for an external investor, and resisting the Quikr deal, investors have pushed for an acquisition which is now in the due diligence stage," said one source to ET.

The contours of the deal, including whether CommonFloor will operate as a subsidiary of Quikr are still being worked out.

Bengaluru-based CommonFloor has been in talks to raise fresh funding from financial investors for several months now.

Founded in 2008 by Jain, Lalit Mangal and Vikas Malpani, the company has so far received over $60 million in venture funding and was valued at a little over $100 million in its last round of fund raising.

Earlier this year Quikr, which is also backed by Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, looked at Soft-Bank-backed Housing.com for a potential acquisition, but people aware of the developments said the talks fell through as the two parties could not agree on a price.

Bengaluru-based Quikr — founded in 2008 and now valued at about $ 900 million — is building various verticals across segments like automobiles, blue & grey collar jobs in addition to realty.

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