Remaining SMB Portfolio Renamed Business.com; Doug Llewellyn Named CEO

The digital publisher and marketplace platform Purch completed the sale of its US-based Business-to-Consumer business unit and all associated brands and services to Future US, Inc., a subsidiary of the publicly traded UK-based media company, Future Publishing Ltd. The sale includes the Purch brand, its consumer brand portfolio, including Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Hardware, TopTenReviews, ShopSavvy, Live Science, and Space.com, as well as Purch’s yield optimization platform, RAMP and its associated licensing business. The remaining SMB portfolio will move forward as Business.com, an interactive marketplace platform that provides millions of small and medium business owners with the tools, services, and expert advice they need to help them grow their business.

Former Purch President and COO Doug Llewellyn has been named CEO of Business.com, while former Purch CEO Greg Mason will remain an advisor to the company’s board.

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Ralph Terkowitz of ABS Capital Partners, representing the board, said, “We appreciate Greg’s stewardship of the Purch business and leadership enabling this sale of the consumer assets of Purch to Future Publishing, Ltd.  We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.  We look forward to working closely with Doug Llewellyn as the CEO of Business.com. Doug had the vision to identify and acquire businesses complementary to Purch to create Business.com and is the ideal person to lead this business to future successes.”

Llewellyn has been leading the development of Business.com for over a year at Purch. The B2B company has grown considerably from its acquisition of BuyerZone in 2014 and the Business.com brand in 2016. It now has the opportunity to expand its service-oriented digital platform with new content, tools, services, and advice to its millions of small business members.

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“We see Business.com as one of the most valuable business destinations on the Internet, the go-to resource for the almost 28 million SMBs in the United States, who arguably form the largest and most important part of the US economy,” Llewellyn says. “Increasingly, business owners, executives, suppliers, and entrepreneurs are coming to the Business.com brands to engage with our community of experts and to leverage our SMB-focused buying tools.”

Llewellyn and his team continue to focus on expanding the marketplace of small business owners through multiple channels – an extensive portfolio of targeted business publishers, targeted online marketing, and the growth of their own premium website brands. “In today’s ever-changing world, we can’t rely on any one channel or platform for our success. The ability to attract and serve business owners through various means has allowed us to grow a large and profitable business, while making sure we aren’t beholden to any one channel,” says Llewellyn.

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The new Business.com brand includes:

• Business.com, since being acquired in 2016, is the trusted resource for the information, products and services small business owners need to run and grow their businesses, with an industry focus on restaurants/hospitality, construction/general contracting, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, real estate, agriculture, travel, and financial services.
• BuyerZone, acquired in 2014, is a service of Business.com that connects educated buyers looking to save time and money on their important business purchases with select sellers at the time they are ready to do business.
• Business News Daily, founded in 2010, is a news and information resource to help entrepreneurs build their businesses and make smart decisions about products, services and ideas.

Prior to Purch, Llewellyn was Vice President, Corporate and Business Development and Digital Media Sales for the leading online SMB community platform Manta Media, where he led partnership strategy, outreach, and digital advertising sales. That followed 12 years with CBS Interactive/CNET Networks where he held such leadership roles as Vice President and GM of the B2B portfolio of properties that includes ZDNet, TechRepublic, and SmartPlanet.

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