Updated: FT Deutschland reports that the price is about 85 million Euros (about $112 million), with about 50 million Euros in cash and rest based on performance. The story says rival German giant Springer was bidding close to 90 million Euros, but Holtzbrinck was already invested in the company (2 million euros previously for a 15 percent stake) so it prevailed. It also says Facebook also made a bid but in shares of the company.
StudiVZ, one of the biggest German online social networks, focused on college students (similar to Facebook), has been bought out by Holtzbrinck group, the German publishing giant. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but the speculation is between 80 million- 100 million Euros, according to reports.
The social network has been going through a bunch of trouble for the last few months, including performance issues. StudiVZ claims to be one of the biggest social networks in Europe, with reportedly about 1 million members, mostly in German-speaking countries Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The service already had venture investment from Holtzbrinck as well as the Samwer brothers, founders of the ringtone vendor Jamba. Some more details about the service in this Wikipedia post.
A list of Holtzbrinck’s other online holdings are here: it includes Handelsblatt Online, Audible Germany, Nature.com (through NPG) and others.
Some more details in this German-language release.