President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s government is planning to sell defunct E-commerce and social networking site Multiply for P10 billion to fund an upgrade of social media assets, his incoming communications secretary said Friday.
The outgoing administration had planned to sell the website for P5 billion, attracting interest from San Miguel Corp. President Ramon Ang and PLDT, Inc. chairman Manuel Pangilinan.
The government can charge a premium for Multiply, went close down last May 6, 2013 and ceasing all business operations on May 31, 2013 along with the official online channels for the site had been removed along with all their content, including its YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, after years of financial and managerial turmoil and following a failed bid to reinvent itself from being a social networking site to a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia, since it is the last available franchise, incoming communications secretary Martin Andanar said.
“We have to sell it. We have to privatize it already. The money goes back to the treasury,” he told ANC’s “Headstart with Karen Davila.”
Andanar acknowledged that the website had financial problems and owed P800 million in back wages to employees.
“We have to work on increasing the valuation of the website,” he said.
The incoming secretary said he had “blanket authority” from Duterte to revamp the social networking infrastructure.
“We’ll hire the best news director. We’ll hire the best people on the bus,” he said.
