PR WEB – Sep 13 – 2LoveToday Online Dating, which is Janis Spindel's first online matchmaking site, is ready for sale. She plans to sell 2LoveToday for its development costs of $285K plus 10% revenue for 10 years dropping down to 5% for the next 5 years while leveling off at 1%. This includes a sale, merger, and IPO.
Category: All Acquisitions
IAC Buys DateHookup
THE NEXT WEB – Aug 31 – IAC today announced its acquisition of DateHookup.com, a free dating site that claims 1M unique visitors per month. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. DateHookup was founded by CEO Dustin Weirich in 2002 and has grown to become the 6th most-trafficked free online dating website in the US.
by Robin Wauters
See full article at The Next Web
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
FriendFinder Networks Sheds JigoCity Unit
XBIZ – Aug 7 – FriendFinder Networks is dumping its JigoCity division and selling it back to its original owner for $1. FriendFinder last September acquired BDM Global Ventures, parent of JigoCity, in a stock deal that was worth about $4.3M when FriendFinder's stock price was more than double what it is today – 90c as traded on the Nasdaq today. JigoCity, which focuses on "daily deals," operates in such foreign markets as Australia, Brazil, China, Singapore and Taiwan. Recently, it was pulling out of the Hong Kong market. FriendFinder said it would be able to cancel 4.1M of 6.4M warrants with strike prices ranging from $7 to $18 a share issued during the acquisition.
by Rhett Pardon
See full article at XBiz
Mark Brooks: I've seen multiple idating sites start daily deals sites and bail on them now. We just bailed on running Daily Deals Observer. The industry seems mired, and not that interesting really.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
Alma Media Buys Finland’s Largest Dating Site
MARKET WATCH – Aug 2 – Alma Media has bought e-kontakti.fi, Finland's largest dating site from the Swedish company Intodate International AB. The value of the deal was not disclosed. E-kontakti.fi has ~35K active members and 11K paying members. Last year, the revenue of e-kontakti.fi was $1.9M Eur.
The full article was originally published at Market Watch, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Cupid Ties The Knot With French Peer
THE SCOTSMAN – July 24 – Cupid has bought French peer Assistance Genie Logiciel (AGL) from private equity fund Financiere PES for €3.7M (£2.9M). AGL’s 25 staff in Paris run three websites, two of which – Amour.com and SeRencontrer.com – follow traditional models, while the third, Ulla.com, is “somewhat racier”, analysts said. Cupid does not disclose revenue by country but it is estimated that the revenue run-rate in France prior to today’s acquisition was ~€6M.”
by Peter Ranscombe
See full article at The Scotsman
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
UK Global Personals Acquires Smooch.com
WLD – May 10 – Global Personals acquires Smooch, the 7th largest dating site in UK (Experian Hitwise), alongside its parent company WooWise. The acquisition also includes Mancentral.com, which will help Global Personals grow its gay dating division. Martin Bysh and Marcus Hamilton will remain as advisors to the business. The financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
See all posts on Smooch
See all posts on WooWise
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
eLove Matchmaking Expands To Canada
SB WIRE – May 7 – eLove Matchmaking is opening offices in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary and has acquired Real Connections, with its offices in Calgary and Edmonton. Professional matchmakers do the recruiting, marketing and interviewing for their members to ensure their privacy and safety. eLove conducts a mandatory background check for the safety of each single they match.
AshleyMadison Acquires Ohhtel.com
OPW – Apr 18 – The infidelity service AshleyMadison.com has finalized a deal to acquire Ohhtel.com, the South American infidelity dating site. The financial terms of this acquisition were not disclosed. As part of this transition, Ohhtel.com is shutting down its online dating service and instead changing its product offering to Live Sex shows and Erotic video chat.
See all posts on AshleyMadison
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Dating Factory Acquires World Dating Partners
PR WEB – Apr 13 – Caerus AG, the owner of Dating Factory has acquired Datech, better known for its private label platform World Dating Partners. Both companies have offerings in multiple languages and dating niches. The two companies will continue to be operated separately. DatingFactory.com was established in 2009 and provides private label dating platform. DatingFactory.com operates in 15 languages, 40 niches, and has a global data base of millions. World Dating Partners, established in 2001, is a global private label dating platform available in multiple languages.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Cupid Founders’ £10.8m Payout
HERALD SCOTLAND – Mar 9 – Bill Dobbie and Max Polyakov, founders of Cupid, have each netted £10.8M after selling a total of 12M shares. The sale, equivalent to 14.8% of the company, comes just days after Cupid revealed that Mr Polyakov, its business development director, has quit to launch a social gaming business in the US. Mr Dobbie and Mr Polyakov each sold 6M shares at 180p each. The buyers were institutional investors. Following the disposals Mr Dobbie retains 13.8M shares, some 17% of the company, while Mr Polyakov has 12.6M, or 15.5%.