Scout24

Scout24 SE is a German publicly-listed digital company headquartered in Munich, operating the online marketplace ImmoScout24. The ImmoScout24 multi-platform attracted over 20 million visitors monthly in Germany in 2021, either through the website or the app.

The company's shares have been listed in the MDAX since June 18, 2018.

ImmoScout24 serves as an online portal for real estate providers, owners, tenants, and buyers, attracting approximately 20 million visitors monthly to its website and app. As of the end of 2019, it hosted 425,000 real estate listings.

The Berlin-based company has a workforce of around 1100 employees.

History
Scout24 was established in 1998 by internet entrepreneur Joachim Schoss, financed by entrepreneur Otto Beisheim and others. In 2004, T-Online, then a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, acquired Scout24 from Beisheim Holding. Following the merger of T-Online International with Deutsche Telekom, Scout24 became a direct subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom in June 2006.

In 2011, Telekom sold Scout24 Group's job exchange, JobScout24, to CareerBuilder.

By mid-2013, Deutsche Telekom announced its intention to sell the Scout24 group. On November 21, 2013, Telekom disclosed that it had divested 70 percent of its shares in Scout24 to Hellman & Friedman for EUR 1.5 billion.

On September 7, 2015, Scout24 announced its IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Approximately 29.5 million shares were to be placed with an offer volume of EUR 899 million. Following the IPO, Hellman & Friedman would retain 49% ownership, while Deutsche Telekom would hold 14% of the shares. The remaining shares were to be in free float. Trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange commenced on October 1, 2015. In September 2016, Hellman & Friedman divested its entire stake in Scout24. In June 2018, the Scout24 share was included in the MDAX of the German Stock Exchange. In July 2018, the portal Finanzcheck.de was acquired.

On February 15, 2019, the Scout Group accepted a takeover bid of around 5.7 billion euros from Pulver BidCo GmbH, backed by financial investors Blackstone Group and Hellmann & Friedmann. However, the takeover failed when, as of May 14, 2019, only 42.8% of shareholders approved the takeover bid, falling short of the minimum 50% approval threshold. Despite this, financial investor Blackrock still retains a stake in Scout24.

In December 2019, it was announced that Hellmann & Friedman would acquire the marketplaces AutoScout24, FinanceScout24, and Finanzcheck from Scout24 for EUR 2.9 billion in the first half of 2020.

Conflicts with other domain owners
Scout24 International Management AG, headquartered in Switzerland, issued warnings to numerous domain owners containing "Scout" in their names, asserting that the term "Scout" alone, without "24," was protected by trademark law. However, "Scout" is not registered as a trademark, and by the end of 2012, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) had rejected an application by Scout24 International Management AG against owners of similar domains.