Business exits and small M&A case studies — 4/9
Exit and acquisition cases
73–96 of 203
Free-Template Site SlidesCarnival Sold to Canva for €20K/Month: What a One-Person Distribution Site Can Reach
SlidesCarnival, a free presentation-template site run single-handedly by Spanish designer Jimena Catalina Gayo, generated €20,000 (about ¥3.3M) a month in ad revenue and was acquired by Canva, the biggest name in design platforms. Like html5up before Carrd, it shows a "free-giveaway audience" being bought by a major company.
The Coast, Founded in 1993, Joins Local Media Coalition Overstory: The Landing Point of 30 Years of Local Reporting
The Coast, a weekly alternative paper published in Halifax, Canada since 1993, was sold by its founding couple to Overstory Media Group, a coalition of local media outlets. A long-established local media succession that navigates the print-to-digital transition through a capital injection via acquisition.
German SEO Tool Seobility Sells to saas.group: A Third Exit for "Quietly Indispensable Tools"
Seobility, a German-made all-in-one SEO checker, was sold to SaaS acquisition group saas.group. Following DashThis and Usersnap, it is the group's third acquisition covered here — fresh evidence that an "institutionalized buyer" is what underwrites exits for mid-sized SaaS.
The Half Marathon Guide: “Just Half Marathon Race Info” Adds Up to $1.2M — Sold to an Individual Buyer
The Half Marathon Guide, a site cataloging half marathons across the U.S., earned founder Terrell Johnson roughly $1.2M (about ¥180M) cumulatively before being sold to individual buyer Michael Mazzara. A case study in the compounding power of unglamorous information curation: "the race calendar."
Ammesso.it: 70,000 Users on a Med School Exam App, Sold as a Side Project for Mid Six Figures
Ammesso.it, an Italian medical school entrance exam prep app, sold to fellow exam-prep company Testbusters in June 2021 with about 70,000 users, for a mid-six-figure dollar amount. It was essentially a two-person side project.
Wellness Blog Root + Revel Passes from One Individual to Another: An Everyday Scene from the "Used-Blog Market"
Root + Revel, a holistic wellness blog, was transferred from founder Kate Kordsmeier to an individual buyer, Sarah Ware. A record of "person-to-person blog sales" — not a headline deal — functioning as an ordinary, everyday transaction.
PR Management SaaS Prowly Sells to Semrush: A Polish Startup's Path into a Marketing Suite
Prowly, a PR and media-relations management SaaS founded by two people in Poland, was sold to SEO giant Semrush. It was chosen as a component of a suite strategy expanding marketing work horizontally from SEO to content to PR.
CBWG: From a Local Sports Blog to a $25M Sale to XLMedia — Riding a “Change in the Law” at Full Speed
CBWG Media, which started as a Philadelphia sports blog, rode the wave of sports betting legalization triggered by the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling and grew rapidly as a bookmaker-referral media business. In 2021 it was sold to the UK's XLMedia for $25M (about ¥3.75 billion). A case of seizing the market moment created by regulatory change.
Business Name Generator Domainify Sells for Eight Figures: A Suite of Tools That Captured the "Naming Moment"
Domainify Group, a suite of tool sites that generate business and domain name ideas, was sold to Game Lounge for eight figures in dollars (billions of yen). A business capturing the search demand behind the very first act of starting a business: finding a name.
Potion, the Notion-to-Website Builder, Sells for $300K — From Solo Developer to Individual Buyer
Potion, which turns Notion pages into fast websites, was grown by solo developer Noah Bragg in build-in-public style and sold for $300K (approx. ¥45M) to individual buyer Bruno Morency. A defining example of individual-to-individual micro-SaaS deals.
Proofreading Course Proofread Anywhere Sold for $4.5M: One of the Largest Exits Ever for a "Skill Course"
Proofread Anywhere, an online course teaching people how to earn money proofreading, was built by Caitlin Pyle from her own side-hustle experience and sold to publicly traded holding company Onfolio for $4.5M (about ¥675M). One of the largest exits ever for a creator-built skill course.
Elementary Librarian: a $1M+ Exit on Hyper-Niche Lesson Plans for School Librarians
Elementary Librarian, which sells lesson plans to elementary school librarians, was sold to SureSwift Capital for $1M+ (over ¥150M). A case of triple-layered niching — teachers, within that librarians, within that elementary school — creating a monopoly.
Postcode Shipping: A Shipping-Rate Shopify App Sells to Solo Investor Fund MicroAngel — “Micro PE” as a New Kind of Buyer
Postcode Shipping, a Shopify app that calculates shipping rates by postal code, was sold to MicroAngel Fund, run by individual investor Eyal Toledano. A real-world example of "micro PE" — an individual buying small SaaS businesses and earning operating returns.
Crypto Newsletter Milk Road Sold 10 Months After Launch with 250,000 Subscribers: A Textbook Case of Getting Off at the Peak
Milk Road, the crypto newsletter launched in January 2022 by serial entrepreneur Shaan Puri and Ben Levy, reached 250,000 subscribers in just 10 months and was sold to Bitfo within the same year. A case that ran the full "build it, grow it, sell it while the boom lasts" playbook at record speed.
Madison Minutes, a Small-City Indie Newsletter, Joins the Local Media Network City Cast
Madison Minutes, a local newsletter in Madison, Wisconsin, was sold to City Cast, which operates a network of city-specific podcasts and newsletters. One example of a broader trend: in regions where newspapers have declined, indie newsletters pick up local reporting and are then bundled into national networks.
Jira App Portfolio Jexo Sells to Appfire: Three Years from "Two People → Portfolio → Exit" in the Atlassian Ecosystem
Jexo, a portfolio of Jira apps built by Florin Biro and Nikki Zavadska on the Atlassian Marketplace, was sold to Appfire, the ecosystem's largest player. Following Snapbytes, another classic in-ecosystem roll-up exit.
Ladders: A Job-Site Newsletter With 2.2M Subscribers Sold to Industry Dive — an Exit Priced on List Size Alone
The daily newsletter arm of job site The Ladders (2.2M subscribers) was sold to B2B media company Industry Dive in 2021. An asset-carve-out deal: selling just the mailing list, a single division of the business, rather than the company itself.
A 30-year-old tutoring school in Fukuoka was handed over in about 7 months — every online marketing push after COVID missed
A tutoring school founded in Fukuoka in 1995 as a home-tutor agency, once employing about 100 instructors at its peak, was handed to a company employee in his 40s over about 7 months. Instagram, LINE, landing pages, and video campaigns run after COVID reportedly showed no felt effect.
Freelance Writers Den, a Paid Community for Writers, Sells for Six Figures: Engineering the Teacher's Retirement
Freelance Writers Den, the paid community for writers run by Carol Tice — whose blog reaches a million readers a year — was sold to Jara Publishing for six figures (USD). A case of an educational community sustained for over a decade being handed over as its founder retired, complete with a price cut and a resale.
SEO Content SaaS Contentpace Sells to an AI Content Company at 2.5x Revenue
Contentpace, a SaaS for building and optimizing SEO article outlines, was sold to AI content generator Content at Scale for 2.5x revenue. Rather than fighting the generative AI flood as a standalone tool, the founder chose to become a feature inside an AI company.
Parent-Communication App ClassTag Sells to Education SaaS SchoolStatus: How "Free Tools for Teachers" Get Monetized
ClassTag, a teacher-parent communication and engagement app, was sold to SchoolStatus, a district-focused analytics company. The education-SaaS playbook — give it to teachers for free, sell to schools and districts — has become a complete pattern, exit-by-consolidation included.
Calendar App Cron Sells to Notion: How a "Beautiful Calendar" Became Part of a Suite
Cron, the fast, polished calendar app built by designer-turned-founder Raphael Schaad, was acquired by Notion and became Notion Calendar. The cleanest possible exit for an "experience-quality-first" product that is hard to monetize on its own.
"Budgets Are Sexy": 13 Years of Anonymous Personal Finance Blogging, Sold to a Motley Fool-Affiliated Network
Budgets Are Sexy, the personal finance blog masked blogger J. Money wrote for 13 years, was sold to the Motley Fool-affiliated Soapbox Financial Network. Proof that a long-term brand — and an exit — can be built on a "character" without ever revealing your real name.
Bitches Who Brunch: A Brunch Review Site Sells to a Sports-Community Company — Buying “the Readers’ Weekend Hours”
Bitches Who Brunch, a brunch review site with over a million monthly pageviews, was sold to Volo Sports, an operator of adult recreational sports leagues. A buyer seemingly unrelated to media came for "the same demographic's weekend hours" — a case that widens the lens on buyer selection.