Category: All Acquisitions

Woo Media Acquired By Zoosk

Posted on November 3, 2011

Woome zoosk logaPR WEB – Nov 3 - Woo Media, the live interactive video network, with web properties including WooMe.com, Shufflepeople.com, and Monsterchat.com, has announced its sale to Zoosk, the world’s largest social dating site. WooMe’s 10M users will soon be able to engage directly with Zoosk’s user base of over 100M users. In addition, all properties owned and operated by Woo Media will also be merged into Zoosk. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The full article was originally published at PR Web, but is no longer available.

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Yahoo Offloads BharatMatrimony Holding Company Stake

Posted on October 12, 2011

Bharatmatrimony logoECONOMIC TIMES – Oct 12 – Yahoo has sold its stake in the company that owns the online matchmaking portal bharatmatrimony.com, valuing it at $190M. BharatMatrimony, which makes its money through subscriptions, competes with shaadi.com, jeevansathi.com and simplymarry.com, which is owned by the Times Group.

See full article at Economic Times

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Facebook Acquires Friend.ly

Posted on October 12, 2011

Friendly logoMASHABLE – Oct 11 - Facebook has acquired two-year-old social question-and-answer startup Friend.ly for an undisclosed sum. The Friend.ly team will join Facebook and focus on new products for the social network, while the Friend.ly site will continue to operate as a separate service. Friend.ly, a service similar to Formspring, raised $5.5M in Series A funding.

by Jennifer Van Grove
See full article at Mashable

Mark Brooks: Friend.ly was founded by Harvard and Stanford educated Ed Baker. It's a discovery engine to help people learn more about their current friends. A 'lite' idating app, of sorts. (Full Disclosure: Friend.ly was advised by the Courtland Brooks team)

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IAC’s Match.com Buys 20% Stake in Zhenai

Posted on September 14, 2011

Match zhenai logos TECH CRUNCH – Sep 14 – Match.com has acquired a 20% interest in Zhenai, a provider of “online matchmaking services” in China, for an undisclosed sum. Launched in 2005 by CEO Dr. Song Li, Zhenai provides integrated Internet and telephone matchmaking services to Chinese singles looking for long-term relationships. Zhenai is said to boast a user base of ~30M registered members.

by Robin Wauters
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Read OPW interviews with Dr Song Li, CEO of Zhenai: June 2007, June 2008

FriendFinder Networks Acquires JigoCity for $65 million

Posted on September 13, 2011

Jigocity logo PR NEWSWIRE – Sep 12 - FriendFinder Networks announced the acquisition of BDM Global Ventures, the company which owns the operations of JigoCity, for a combination of stock and warrants. The merger consideration will be ~$65M. JigoCity is a global social commerce organization committed to providing members with high quality daily deals that are relevant to their individual lifestyles.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Cupid Buys Brazilian Dating Sites

Posted on August 22, 2011

Cupidplc logo STOCK MARKETWIRE – Aug 22 - Cupid has taken over several Brazilian online dating sites for a total of $0.75M. The sites include AondeNamoro.com, a traditional online dating site, and SolteirosComFilhos.com, a dating site for single parents. The combined sites have 1.4M members.

See full article at Stock Marketwire

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IAC Wins Control of Meetic

Posted on August 19, 2011

Meetic matchcom loga REUTERS – Aug 19 – IAC/InterActiveCorp has won control of French dating site Meetic, boosting its stake to 77.6%, after most shareholders agreed to IAC's 15 euros per share offer price. IAC, through two arms of its Match.com unit, had gained 73.7% of voting shares and 77.6% of Meetic's capital. Match.com has said it did not plan to delist Meetic after completion of the offer, which expired on Tuesday and valued the French company at 347M euros ($489M).

by Christian Plumb
See full article at Reuters

Mark Brooks: If you can't beat 'em join 'em.  Match's European business was folded under Meetic's wing in June 2009 when Meetic swapped 27% of its share's and 5 million Euro for Match Europe.  That was the first step in Match acquiring Meetic. 

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FriendFinder Acquired PerfectMatch.com

Posted on July 19, 2011

Perfectmatch logo new July 2011 PR NEWSWIRE – July 18 – Adding to FriendFinder Networks' vast portfolio of social networks, PerfectMatch.com is a welcome addition to the platform of FFN's general audience sites. Unique to PerfectMatch.com is the Duet Total Compatibility System, which analyzes the "whole person" to find friends, taking into account each member's personality, values and ideals, life and love-style preferences to identify and find the person right for them. PerfectMatch.com founder Duane Dahl will join FriendFinder Networks as GM of the Company's general audience dating websites group, including Amigos.com, AsiaFriendFinder.com, BigChurch.com and SeniorFriendFinder.com.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Cupid Wins Over German Online Dating Business

Posted on June 23, 2011

Cupidplc logo STOCKOPEDIA – June 23 – Cupid has acquired a 75% stake in two German online businesses, OnlineLiebe GmbH and WomenWeb GmbH, for a total of €2.75M (£2.5M). The two companies are run together by the same team in Munich, led by founder Andreas von Maltzan, who is recognised as one of the pioneers and leaders in the German dating market, having established Neu.de, Germany’s most popular dating site, which was sold to Meetic in 2007. OnlineLiebe GmbH owns sites such as Zuckerjungs.de, Zuckerdaddys.de, Gleicheliebe.de and Gayjz.de. Its leading site, Zuckerjungs.de, was founded last year and has already become the market leader in the ‘Cougar’ dating niche in Germany, as well as in Austria and Switzerland. WomenWeb GmbH is Germany's largest online community network of female interest websites with domains such as Womenweb.de, Frauen.de, Kochrezepte.de, Allegraclub.de, Esoteriktreff.de, Hochzeits-club.de and eight other portals. Bill Dobbie, Cupid’s CEO, said: “This acquisition continues our stated strategy of international expansion and is an excellent opportunity for us to gain a foothold in the German-speaking markets.

See full article at Stockopedia

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Cupid Takes Over IndianDating.com

Posted on February 14, 2011

Indiandatingcom logo STOCK MARKET WIRE – Feb 14 – Online dating company Cupid has taken over IndianDating.com and several related domains for $200,000. IndianDating.com's activity is mainly focussed on the Indian community in North America. The sites have ~600K dating and matrimonial site members with the potential for significant expansion. According to the American Community Survey of the US Census Bureau, the Asian Indian population in the US was 2,570,000 in 2007 and had grown at 53% since 2000.

The full article was originally published at Stock Market Wire, but is no longer available.

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