Last week the FT was reporting that Carsales was said to be one...

Last week the FT was reporting that Carsales was said to be one of the interested parties in the slated acquisition of German classifieds group Scout24’s auto classifieds business AutoScout24 (AS24). It was announced today that Scout24 had agreed to sell AS24 to private equity investor Hellman & Friedman for 2.9bn Euros. If Carsales was genuinely interested in AS24 it shows an eagerness to expand its international presence. I also think their failure to acquire AS24 makes an ICQ deal even more likely, if Carsales was to have been successful acquiring AS24 it would have left very little balance sheet room for the next couple of years pushing out an ICQ deal.