USwitch, the price comparison website, is up for sale only three years after being acquired for £210million by a U.S. media company.  Scripps Networks Interactive has appointed advisory firm Allen & Co to sell the business, which it is thought would now fetch less than £50million after struggling to remain profitable in recent years. The company was founded in 2000 by former PricewaterhouseCoopers financier Andrew Salmon and Lord Milford Haven, 47, a cousin of the Queen, to take advantage of the deregulated gas and electricity markets.  The site grew rapidly in 2005 as household power bills soared. The founders sold the business to Scripps in 2006, making massive personal fortunes from the deal. But uSwitch’s own fortunes began to wane soon after. The company has almost ground to a halt as consumers’ appetite for switching suppliers has dwindled. It was hit particularly hard in 2008 by the trend among consumers towards fixing the price of domestic energy supplies.

Industry sources believe that Scripps will have difficulty finding a buyer for the site. But last week speculation mounted that Salmon and Lord Milford Haven were looking to buy back uSwitch through their investment vehicle Jamplant, which bought the online shopping and price comparison site Kelkoo last year. It is understood the pair are offering between £15million and £20million for uSwitch, which they would integrate into Kelkoo. Both were unavailable and Jamplant declined to comment.

Many of the once-leading comparison sites are close to being shut down or sold after failing to obtain the finances they need to market their brands nationally through television advertising and marketing campaigns. Many of the leading sites, such as Gocompare, Confused and Comparethemarket, have spent a fortune on advertising. Moneysupermarket spent £80million on TV advertising last year.

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