by Kara Swisher
See full article at Re/Code
Category: All Acquisitions
Match Group Shares Worth $1.7M Acquired By Morgan Stanley
by Jennifer Langley
The full article was originally published at Financial Market News, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
DateTix Bags More Cash For Dating App Push
FINFEED – Mar 15 – DateTix has agreed to sell a non-core consulting business for a possible sale price of $780K, adding cash to its dating app marketing push. The company has recently announced that it had passed 7K downloads.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
RealBlackLove Dating App Founder Turns Down $1.2M
BLACKNEWS – Mar 3 – RealBlackLove.com has turned down a seven figure bid from a private equity firm to take over the company's dating app. "I did not start this venture with a payout in mind," said RealBlackLove.com CEO and founder, Joseph Dixon.
The full article was originally published at Black News, but is no longer available.
Momo Receives A Commitment From Alibaba To Go Private
SEEKING ALPHA – Feb 24 – Momo named Alibaba's vice chairman Joseph Tsai to its board. This move represents a commitment from the Chinese giant to help Momo's management to take it private. Last summer, executives at Momo proposed to acquire all of the American shares they don't already own for $18.90 each in cash. The management of Momo currently owns about 48% of the company's outstanding shares and has 84% of the voting power. Momo is known to be a Chinese version of Tinder.
See full article at Seeking Alpha
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
FriendFinder Networks Sold Its Penthouse Subsidiary
BUSINESS WIRE – Feb 24 – FriendFinder Networks have sold all of the shares of the companies comprising FFN's Penthouse enterprise to Penthouse Global Media. I asked FFN's CEO for comment. Here's the inside track. "We decided that given our intense focus on dating and cams, we weren't in the best position to give Penthouse the undivided attention it deserves, and Kelly Holland is really passionate about giving it this undivided attention and raised the money to do a management buy-out. We're going to be continuing with live caming of Penthouse models so this arrangement was really a win-win for both parties."
See full article at BusinessWire
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Lulu Acquired By Badoo
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 9 – Lulu, the once controversial mobile app that let women anonymously review and rate men, has been acquired by Badoo. Lulu founder and CEO Alexandra Chong will move back to London from New York to join Badoo as President, where she'll be focusing on international expansion. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed. Lulu had raised $15M. The new Lulu will be powered by Badoo.
by Steve O'Hear
See full article at Tech Crunch
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Major Spark Shareholder Buying More Shares
ANALYST RATINGS – Jan 22 – Lloyd I. Miller, bought shares of LOV for $292.3k. Over the last month, Miller has reported 5 buy trades for a total of $1.12M and has increased his holding by 3.16%. LOV's market cap is $82.98M and the company has a P/E ratio of 21.2%. The company has a one year high of $5.10 and a one year low of $2.76. In the last 30 days, insiders have sold $1.36M worth of shares and purchased $1.41M.
by George Macdonald
See full article at Analyst Ratings
See all posts on Spark Networks
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Grindr’s Sale To Chinese To Signal A Boon For Gay Dating Apps?
SBS – Jan 20 – Despite homosexuality only being decriminalised as recently as 1997 and the scene still largely underground due to social stigma, Grindr is actually not even the most popular gay dating app in China. Blued claims more than three million daily users and is expected to soon become a publicly-listed company. Grindr claims to have a presence in 196 countries around the world and is used in countries where homosexuality is illegal or considered taboo. In the second half of the 2014-15 financial year, Grindr said its users in India grew by nearly 50% from the same period the year prior.
by Genevieve Dwyer
See full article at SBS
China Videogame Developer Buys Grindr
CANADA JOURNAL – Jan 13 – Beijing Kunlun Tech, which is run by billionaire Zhou Yahui, paid $93M for a 60% controlling stake in the company – a significant sum for what is Grindr's first outside investment. Zhou Yahui, is a relatively unknown name in the tech scene but has made a $2.8B fortune through free-to-play online videogames and an extremely successful IPO on Shenzhen's ChiNext stock exchange.