EDSA (European Directories), a holding company owned by the private equity firm Triton Partners, has combined two of its companies to create a single player in a stronger position to address the small business market with digital marketing solutions.
EDSA announced this week that the degado group, a German-Austrian web hosting company with 260,000 small business customers, is taking over 100% of the shares of HEROLD, a legacy directory publisher that has, like many YP companies, evolved into a digital marketing agency. The merger is expected to be completed in February.
The EDSA leadership team sees the move as a natural fit. It combines the companies’ complementary solutions into a single, stronger player.
“Finally a bold move in this industry! Bringing together dogado, one of Europe’s fastest-growing hosting companies, and Herold, the leading SMB marketing partner in Austria, fits like a glove,” EDSA Chief Digital Officer John Goddard told Localogy Insider. “Dogado’s expertise in digital processes, automation, and DIY service delivery combined with Herold’s 25% market share, 96% brand awareness, and second-to-none sales force will deliver the means for consistent double-digit digital growth and higher margins.”
Goddard serves as CDO at the EDSA level. But he also works at the operating company level. He served as HEROLD’s managing director from September 2018 to April 2020. And he has joined the dogado management team, also as CDO.
EDSA is a holding company, largely for European legacy directory organizations rolled up over the years. Its current portfolio includes HEROLD, Fontecta (Finland), and Youvia. The latter company, based in the Netherlands, offers digital marketing services to SMBs.
Combined for Cross-Selling
Once the two companies are combined, they will have more than 300,000 customers. Of these, 260,000 will be from dogado and 45,000 from Herold. And because the product sets are complementary, it’s easy to see cross-selling opportunities.
Herold offers websites, search marketing, and SEO. It also has an “Online Complete” bundle that combines GMB, presence management, a listing on the Herold directory, plus some analytics and data protection tools. Herold is one of 10 Austrian companies that can claim to be a “Google Leading Agency.”
So far, HEROLD has more than 20,000 websites, 12,000 search campaigns, and 2,000 SEO campaigns under its belt.
For its part, dogado offers domains, email, and cloud collaboration tools and cloud data storage, as well as managed hosting solutions. The company opened its doors in 2001. At first it focused exclusively on hosting. But over time it expanded into cloud-based business solutions.
Daniel Hagemeier, dogado’s CEO and co-owner also noted HEROLD’s high level of trust and recognition among Austrian small businesses.
“We would like to build on this trust and expand the digital product portfolio in order to make our customers even more successful online,” Hagemeier said.
