WSJ – June 25 – IAC/InterActiveCorp has followed through on a long-expected plan to pursue an IPO of Match Group. Mr. Diller, IAC’s chairman, isn’t breaking up with Match Group entirely. The company is planning to sell a stake of less than 20% in the division, which includes fitness and educational businesses. Investors cheered the move, sending IAC’s shares up $3.93, or 5.1%, to $81.19. Match Group is IAC’s strongest growth engine, bringing in 29% of overall revenue in 2014. For all the buzz around dating sites, there hasn’t yet been a significant win for VCs in terms of an IPO, said Mark Brooks, CEO of Courtland Brooks, an adviser to dating companies. That’s been a challenge for entrepreneurs. "We need a success story, and I think the Match Group could be a success story," he said. If the IPO doesn’t go over well with investors, "we can kiss the opportunity of future funding goodbye."
by Georgia Wells & Lukas I. Alpert
See full article at Wall Street Journal
Match’s international business expansion may be severely hampered by a little known law, IMBRA 2005, a law which requires the foreign dating client to review the criminal and personal history of American residents prior to International correspondence if they use certain dating sites. Also the foreign dating client must submit government Identification (I.e copy of birth certificate) prior to communication. Currently this overreaching federal law exempts those companies like match.com whose primary focus is not International and with fees not based on gender or country of origin. However if they expand Internationally they will likely be regulated by IMBRA 2005, and it seems doubtful that foreign women or American men will submit to intense government scrutiny of their love lives.Dave R.
Match’s international business expansion may be severely hampered by a little known law, IMBRA 2005, a law which requires the foreign dating client to review the criminal and personal history of American residents prior to International correspondence if they use certain dating sites. Also the foreign dating client must submit government Identification (I.e copy of birth certificate) prior to communication. Currently this overreaching federal law exempts those companies like match.com whose primary focus is not International and with fees not based on gender or country of origin. However if they expand Internationally they will likely be regulated by IMBRA 2005, and it seems doubtful that foreign women or American men will submit to intense government scrutiny of their love lives.Dave R.