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.
Category: All Acquisitions
Cupid Takes Over IndianDating.com
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.
IAC’s Match.com Acquires OkCupid For $50M In Cash
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 2 – IAC’s Match.com is continuing its acquisition strategy today with the purchase of OkCupid for $50M in cash. The deal also includes future earnouts contingent upon performance. While Match.com has a significant userbase, OkCupid singles tend to be younger, which is why Match found it to be a useful acquisition. OkCupid, which has raised $6M, was co founded by Max Krohn, Sam Yagan, Chris Coyne and Christian Rudder. Match has previously acquired dating site People Media for $80M and most recently Singlesnet. Yagan will continue to operate OkCupid. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Parship Acquires 12like
OPW – Jan 12 – On 1st January 2011, PARSHIP took over the entire operations of 12like GmbH, Germany. 12like.com is a specialist in social matchmaking via members’ extended social networks – for instance on Facebook.
Lavalife Sold To First Media Group
OPW – Dec 3 – [Breaking news, you heard it first on OPW]. Lavalife was sold on November 30th to First Media Group. The group also operates Quest Chat lines and QuestPersonals.com, a competitor to Lavalife's telemedia and online business. Ron Duke, the CEO & CFO has left, and Peter Housley, the President and COO of First Media Group has resumed his role as CEO of Lavalife. He was CEO in 2003 and was the original brand architect. No numbers have been released.
eLove Acquires Los Angeles Matchmaker
PRESS RELEASE – Sep 30 - eLove, the matchmaking company, has acquired Cupid’s Coach. The addition of Cupid Coach’s two locations in LA and Westlake Village brings eLove’s total number of matchmaking offices to 50 nationwide. As the principal of Cupid’s Coach, Julie Ferman has been in the matchmaking business for more than 20 years. The partnership with eLove makes sense for us on many levels,” said Ferman. “We are now the first dating company to offer our clients both traditional matchmaking through eLove’s existing model and mutual selection matchmaking, using detailed personal resumes and professional photos. FULL ARTICLE @ ARTICLE BASE
EasyDate Has Tied The Knot With Cupid
GUARDIAN.CO.UK – Sep 22 – EasyDate acquires North American rival cupid.com in a deal worth £4.4m. EasyDate already operates cupid.com outside the US and will now take charge of its US and Canada operations – reversing a trend that has seen US sites such as eHarmony eye up the UK for acquisitions. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK
Easydate Takes Over Two Dating Sites
IB TIMES UK – Sep 1 – Easydate has acquired PlanetSappho.com for £200,000 and Spanish-based dating site Granamor.com for £25,000 to boost its international growth and expand its niche portfolio. Easydate said it had entered into an agreement with dating website Flirt.com to license the domain for an initial period of six months. Easydate will run the dating service across English speaking markets with an option to acquire the domain based on the performance over this period. Easydate has also entered into partnerships with Associated Newspaper's 'Metro' newspaper and Cosmopolitan and Men's Health magazines to promote two individual dating events in London scheduled over the next month.
The full article was originally published at IB Times UK, but is no longer available.
CatholicMatch.com Acquires TraditionalSingleCatholics.com
PR NEWSWIRE – July 1 - CatholicMatch.com, the provider of online dating
for Catholics, has acquired the assets of TraditionalSingleCatholics.com. The integration of the niche site is effective today. TraditionalSingleCatholics.com
was launched four and a half years ago. CatholicMatch acquired
CatholicDaters.com in 2007 and SingleCatholics.com in 2008. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE
Dating.com Sells For $1.75M
TECH CRUNCH – May 13 – Someone has purchased the domain Dating.com
for $1,750,000 at the DOMAINFest auction. Today’s auction racked up
$2.4M in sales. Dating.com was sold by domain firm Oversee.net, via its
SnapNames unit. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH