Last Friday LSL (LON:LSL) took up c. 20% of Yopa for £20 million cash. Yopa is described as a hybrid online estate agent and, at first glance, looks identical to Purplebricks (LON:PURP) in that customers pay Yopa a fixed sum, win lose or draw. This suggests that PURP has a real business. However, there is one very big difference in that disappointed Yopa customers get the cash they have paid up front credited to a commission based sale achieved by Yopa. This is just a discounted version of traditional estate agency.
But it means that Yopa, capitalised at £100m on the basis of the LSL subscription terms, is a deadly competitor at any level for PURP which is now capitalised at around £1.25bn. There is no significant difference in tangible asset backing.
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I bought EROS (NYSE:EROS) at $10 last Friday in the belief that it might be cheap in any event. However, it is rumoured that Apple want to buy it outright at around $25. On top of that there is a startling short position in EROS of the order of 40% of the issued equity. Sorting that out if and when a bid arrives will not be a pretty sight.
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Finally, Michel Barnier is going to teach (his word) us to learn not to leave the EU. As far as I am concerned that is a case of the cat getting out of the bag. M Barnier sees us as school pupils who should be compelled to yield to him. Well, I think we can choose another school.