Norwegian Media Groups including Schibsted Form Joint Venture to Tackle Vend

Three major Norwegian media groups have entered a joint venture to take on digital classifieds in Norway.

Schibsted Media (which used to be tied to Schibsted Marketplaces, now Vend) has joined forces with Polaris (another former investor in Vend's dominant portal, FINN) and Amedia, to launch a JV focused on classified advertising, with the three bodies already having registered a merged company with the Norwegian Competition Authority.

Details are thin, but Kampanje reports that each group will own one third of the new business.

Schibsted Media is wholly owned by Tinius Trust, which also holds a 20.5% stake in Vend itself.

Schibsted Media was decoupled from Schibsted Marketplaces in 2024, with the marketplace business rebranding as Vend in 2025. The newly formed merger appears to be a hedged bet back into the classifieds space just two years after its exit. The most obvious strategy is to take on the dominant generalised classifieds platform FINN.no, which is a runaway market leader in Norway.