Tóth, Katalin (2006) Web dictionary, Habostorta sold.

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Abstract

Two major Hungarian websites managed to attract money from large investors last week. Free online multi-language dictionary szotar.sztaki.hu signed an agreement with T-Online Hungary Zrt, the internet arm of Magyar Telekom Nyrt and owner of origo.hu, whereby the online dictionary will be linked to the news site and use its design. Meanwhile, another popular website with tabloid content and a dating service, habostorta.hu, has attracted a wealthy investor in the shape of German media group Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck. The szotar.sztaki.hu online dictionary was originally set up ten years ago by researchers of the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA-Sztaki). “As the site developed, it needed more and more infrastructure [servers] and working hours,” explained MTA-Sztaki researcher Balázs Pataki. “We tried to win government subsidies in tenders, but never did, so in order to maintain the service and develop it further, we made a contract with T-Online.” Pataki declined to disclose the sum the web dictionary operators receive from T-Online. The dictionary claims 70,000-80,000 visitors and 800,000 page impressions a day, Pataki said. Visits to the site will in future be counted as visits to origo.hu. As for habostorta.hu, a majority of Habostorta Kft, the company which owns the site, was sold to the Georg von Holtzbrinck group. The 2005 consolidated financial report of the German group shows that its revenue was above €2 billion. The company publishes German political and business magazines Die Zeit and Handelsblatt, respectively, as well as internationally known science magazines Nature and Scientific American. Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which is actively taking part in the consolidation of online media Europe-wide, regards buying a stake in Habostorta as a strategic investment, and aims to become a major player in the Central and East European online media market, the company said. The previous owners of Habostorta - including György Jaksity, co-owner and managing director of Concorde Securities Zrt, and antiques dealer Tamás Kieselbach - will remain owners of a minority stake in Habostorta Kft, press reports said. According to public financial records, Habostorta’s registered capital was Ft 75 million (€274,000) in 2004, while it posted revenue of Ft 66.2 million in that year. It had an operating loss of Ft 4.1 million, while its after-tax profit was Ft 442,000, press reports stated.

Item Type:	Other
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics and Computer Science > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science / számítástechnika, számítógéptudomány
Divisions:	Department of Distributed Systems
Depositing User:	Péter Pallinger
Date Deposited:	11 Dec 2012 16:04
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2012 16:04
URI:	https://eprints.sztaki.hu/id/eprint/5760

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