Cember.net to Xing

Xing has finally moved to acquire Cember.net, the only online professional networking platform in Turkey. Given Xing's previous moves in Spain, this is perfectly in line with the company's expansion model.  The company has announced that the deal cost €4.36m.

Fast-growing Xing, a competitor to U.S.-based LinkedIn, said it would pay 4.4 million euros ($6.4 million) in stages for cember.net.    

"Xing is driving forward its course of consolidation in Europe," it said in a statement, after it bought Spanish rivals Neurona and eConozco in the last year.

The Hamburg-based company, an early social networking company to go public in 2006, had 4.25 million members at end-September and offers services in 16 languages.

   

The €15/member price tag for the acquisiton shows that there's still a bit of a discount for Turkish internet properties.  Xing is trading at about €45/ member.

Cember.net started out heavily inspired by Xing (which used to be OpenBC), and the founder team of Çağlar and Nihan Çolak Erol have executed their plan flawlessly.  Congratulations to the team!