Lastminute.com Group’s Acquisition of WAYN’s Assets Is Complicated

Strange goings on at WAYN, the social media platform that bills itself as the “world’s largest travel club.”

Yesterday Skift reported that the company that trades as WAYN (Where Are You Now? Ltd) had gone into administration – a form of insolvency in the UK. This remains the case.

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Today, the recently renamed lastminute.com group (formerly Bravofly Rumbo Group) announced it had acquired some of WAYN’s assets as part of its drive to move into the content business.

WAYN can trace its history to the pre-Twitter, pre-Facebook days of 2002 and since its launch has pursued a series of different strategies.

No details of the price paid were given and it is referred to in a press release as an “asset deal,” which “has no material impact on economic and financial figures.”

The fate of the WAYN brand is unknown. Marco Corradino, chief audience architect of lastminute.com group, said in a statement: “WAYN is the perfect fit for lastminute.com group. Its business complements and expands our offering in Europe and, with its strong social travel network platform, it will become the content hub for our entire group.”

Not Straightforward

A WAYN representative characterized Where Are You Now? Ltd as “just one of our legal entities” but the WAYN website and records at Companies House suggest it is the primary operating entity. In 2016, it filed accounts for the year ending September 30, 2015, and although the details were abbreviated they still reveal that the company was struggling financially.

Where Are You Know? Ltd suffered a loss of $846,000 (£652,392), tacking accumulated losses to $5.4 million (£4.1 million) in the year ending September 30, 2015 and had net liabilities of $614,000 (£473,254).

The accounts were prepared on a “going concern” basis, a technical term meaning that a company has the resources to continue operating.

“The directors are aware that the balance sheet of the company reflects net liabilities as at the end of the period. The directors are satisfied that improving trading together with plans for additional investment in the business will enable the company to meet its liabilities as they fall due,” the accounts noted.

According to reports, discussions with lastminute.com group had started earlier this year before they entered exclusivity in June. The accounts for Where Are You Now? Ltd were signed off on June 7.

The company went into administration on September 5. In order to do so it would have needed to show it was insolvent.

When Skift contacted lastminute.com group to ask about the administration a spokesperson said: “lastminute.com group didn’t acquire the shares of WAYN. The company acquired certain assets.”

Skift also asked Jerome Touze, one of the directors of WAYN, a series of questions and is still waiting for a response.

According to web analytics company Similarweb, WAYN traffic over the last six months averaged about 2 million visitors per month, and its largest market was India.