Trade Me founder gets $14m bonus (+video)

Big payout as firm beats profit targets

Trade Me founder Sam Morgan, already one of the richest men in New Zealand, is getting another $14 million or so bonus from the success of his online auction site.
View video: Fairfax posts healthy increase

Fairfax Media said yesterday it paid an extra $45 million to the original Trade Me shareholders, after Trade Me made operating profits of $70 million this year, up 39 per cent.

The partners got another $4.8 million last year, after hitting profit targets set when the firm was sold in 2006, taking the total sale price to $750 million.

Mr Morgan was worth an estimated $260 million earlier this year. He is on a "no phone calls" holiday with his family in Germany and France for a couple of months after stepping down as chief executive of Trade Me this year.

When in Wellington, Mr Morgan spends about a day a week at Trade Me's offices, and he remains chairman of the Fairfax offshoot.

"Sam is in Europe visiting various places he hung out at as a teenage exchange student," Trade Me business manager Mike O'Donnell said.

Mr Morgan spends more time these days as an investor in early stage businesses through his company Jasmine and as a "social investor and philanthropist".

Some recent investments included business intelligence software company iVistra Technologies and a Wellington human resources software maker Sonar6. Mr Morgan is also a director and investor in Xero, an online accounting software firm, and is investing in a firm that makes low cost intravenous drips.

His father, investment adviser, travel writer and philanthropist Gareth Morgan, and his wife Joanne, will get just under 7 per cent of the bonus, and like the original payout, that will go into his charitable foundations.

Gareth Morgan said yesterday he was "travelling illegally in Transdneistr", a breakaway province of Moldova, after being told by police the border was closed.

"These cross-country [motor] bikes are great for those of you who like not doing what you're told," he said.

Mr Morgan has travelled widely by motorcycle around the world. His latest trip includes Iceland, the top of Norway and Russia.

As a UN Children's Fund ambassador, Mr Morgan will be in Romania today spending a day with Unicef on flood relief work.

Half a dozen directors of venture capital company Movac, which put in $75,000 to help get Trade Me going, became multimillionaires as a result of the sale to Fairfax and will share in the latest bonus, along with a group of other original investors.

- © Fairfax NZ News