Lets wait and see in a couple of years if REA is making a good return on the 250m they spent. I think next year will be pretty soft, but you'd think they bugeted longer term to be making tens of millions EBIT from financial services in order to justify that price.
In terms of the pendulum I think it has already swung. Would a lower price have been better for MC? Yes, but at least the purchase made sense in terms of commercial and cost synergies longer term.
I'm in REA for the property advertising lock it has in Aus, as well as the much longer term opportunity in India and Asia. Financial services are just icing on the cake they can leverage from their audience.
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