Australia's Getprice joins with global pricing powerhouse

Australian electronics and consumer goods price comparison site Getprice has merged with international peer PricePanda in a deal expanding both companies' capabilities.

Getprice lists over two and a half million products from more than 1,300 retailers and has teams in Sydney, Melbourne and Tel Aviv.

Both parties will come under the Next Commerce parent company.

Getprice will contribute its "sophisticated" technology platform to the marriage, while PricePanda brings "operational expertise in emerging markets". Next Commerce did not reveal the value of the acquisition.

"This merger with PricePanda lifts the growth potential of both our businesses to a completely new level," co-founder of Getprice and chief executive of Next Commerce Jared Oken said.

"Together we will focus on both extending our lead in the Australian market as well as rapid growth in South East Asia and other emerging markets, including significant investment in scaling our operations team in Manila and our regional sales team."

[Related: Invigor splashes $4.5 on GetPrice backers]

Getprice, in Australia, and PricePanda – in Australia, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines – will continue to run as separate brands in their existing markets.

"Given the tremendous opportunities in the large and rapidly growing Asia Pacific market, we are excited to capitalise on the combined expertise that will enable us to pursue new initiatives in mobile and media," said PricePanda managing director Philip Wegener.

Another co-founder of Getprice, Chris Hitchen, will become chairman of the board for Next Commerce.

After its foundation in 2005, GetPrice was gradually acquired by News Corp Australia (then News Limited) between 2007 and 2010. In October 2012, Hitchen announced that GetPrice's "management team" had bought the company back from News.

In late 2013, the Next Commerce parent company was created to accommodate GetPrice's new sister products TROVA, a fashion site, and Hynt, a retail product recommendation engine.