Beisheim Holding Schweiz, a Swiss venture capital firm, will receive €180m ($220m) from the sale of Scout24, an internet portal, to T-Online, in what is seen as the start of a rapid consolidation of the industry.

T-Online, the internet company that Deutsche Telecom spun off in the late 1990s and which now has 13 million customers across Europe, has agreed to pay cash for 100% of Scout24's equity. A spokesman for T-Online said it was trying to supplement its existing business by acquiring other companies.