Category: All Acquisitions

On Plutolife’s Acquisition

Posted on July 31, 2008

Adrian_risch VENTURE BEAT — July 31 — Jumbuck, a mobile social network, bought rival Plutolife at the beginning of this month for $3.7m. I was interested to hear why. Here's Jumbuck's CEO Adrian Risch on the Plutolife acquisition. 

Q: Jumbuck's business has been on-deck. Please explain what Jumbuck hopes to learn with the acquisition.
A: Plutolife generally uses Premium SMS to monetize their services and they are experts in off-deck mobile communities. We were keen to boost our exposure to the 'off-deck' market and Plutolife was a perfect fit.

Q: What's your business model?
A: Our business model revolves around the provision of chatrooms and real-time dating service over mobile and web.

Q: How will you be able to make money out of off-deck mobile social networks?
A: Plutolife already are making money using Premium SMS.

Q: Where do you see the value in an off-deck mobile social network?
A: We are still believers that you need to partner with the mobile operators in order to actually make money on-deck or off-deck. Plutolife really excel because they use a 'freemium' model. The apps are free to use but monetize with Premium SMS features.

Q: What did you like about Plutolife?
A: We really liked the look and feel of their services, plus the apps were already attracting strong usage on a few US mobile operators such as Alltel and T-mobile.

Q: How do you see the take-off of the mobile web?
A: The mobile web has been growing for years but Apple fired a rocket under it with the iPhone launch. I look forward to vastly quicker mobile web browsing across all devices, so we can offer video, larger images, nicer GUIs and more effective advertising in our products without degrading the user's browsing experience.

Q: What's your view on the emergence of Myspace and Facebook in mobile?
A: Myspace and Facebook are more 'friend-management' social networks. Jumbuck is a 'friend-finder' social network, where you can meet new friends for a casual chit-chat, flirt or date. So we have co-existed nicely for years. FULL ARTICLE @ VENTURE BEAT 

 Mark Brooks: Plutolife built the Lavalife and Date.com dating applications.

EasyDate Acquired SpeedDater

Posted on March 13, 2008

Easydate_speedater_loga EASY DATE — Mar 12 — Edinburgh based EasyDate Ltd. and speed dating company, SpeedDater have merged. The acquisition of Speed Dater by EasyDate was the result of a lengthy one year courtship and was completed on 7th March 2008. The Speed Dating Events and Online business is now under the full ownership of EasyDate and the ex-directors of SpeedDater  are now concentrating on their travel business Speed Breaks.

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Compete Acquired By TNS For $75 Million

Posted on March 3, 2008

Compete_logo
MASHABLE — Mar 3 — Taylor Nelson Sofres plc (TNS) acquired web
analytics company Compete, Inc. for $75 million in cash plus deferred
cash payments in 2008-2010 of up to another $75 million. The
acquisition comes at a time when Compete announced revenue of $14.9
million for 2007 and a loss of $4.5 million for the same year, due to
investing in "building its panel and industry expertise." Along with
Alexa and Quantcast, Compete has been the only relevant, free, publicly
available metric of website traffic. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

Mark Brooks: I use Compete all the time and I hear the information is pretty good.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

HotOrNot Acquired For $20 Million

Posted on February 12, 2008

Hotornot_logo TECH CRUNCH — Feb 11 — San Francisco based HotOrNot, founded by James Hong and Jim Young in October 2000, has been acquired. The buyers are investors connected with Avid Life Media, and paid somewhere around $20 million for the site.  Their annual revenue is estimated to be around $5 million, with $2 million in profit. According to Comscore, the site has around 5 million monthly unique visitors and 200 million page views. The investors are creating a new company, called HotOrNot Media, and they may be acquiring more properties as well. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Cupid.com And RegionalHelpWanted Acquired For $100 Million

Posted on February 12, 2008

Cupid_logo MASHABLE — Feb 11 — RegionalHelpWanted.com was purchased by onTargetjobs, a portfolio company of Warburg pincus. The financial terms weren't explicitly disclosed, but according to PE Hub, Classified Intelligence "pegs the figure at $100 million". RegionalHelpWanted is also the company behind the telephone and online dating service Cupid.com, another recognizable brand name. The RegionalHelpWanted portfolio will join the onTarget portfolio that includes other sites like BioSpace.com, Hcareers.com, HEALTHeCAREERS.com, MedHunters.com, JobLoft.com and CareerBank.com. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

Mark Brooks: Cupid and RHW are promoted on remnant radio advertising usually at second tier radio stations around the country. What's unusual is that the payouts are on a CPA basis to radio stations.  onTargetjobs has picked up a unique marketing channel.

Penthouse To Discuss Its Acquisition Of FriendFinder At iDate

Posted on January 24, 2008

Friendfinder_inc_logo
MARKET WIRE — Jan 24 –  Marc Bell, CEO & Owner of The Penthouse Media Group Inc., will discuss the acquisition of Various, which included the popular dating website FriendFinder, at the Internet Dating Conference taking place on January 31-February 1, 2008 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Based upon current registration figures, this event will be the largest gathering of online personals executives in history. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETWIRE

 Mark Brooks: This sets a few precedents. #1 The very public acquisition of an adult dating company, #2 FriendFinder actually coming out and talking. Definitely a good thing. This will be one of the best attended sessions at iDate.

SheKnows.com Acquires LovingYou.com

Posted on December 19, 2007

Sheknows_lovingyou_logaONLINE MEDIA DAILY –  Dec 19 — SheKnows.com, an L.A.-based network of sites for women, has acquired LovingYou.com, a marriage and relationships advice site. Targeting women ages 25 to 54, SheKnows covers topics such as pregnancy, parenting, health, entertainment, money, dating, beauty and celebrities. Its network includes sites such as PregnancyAndBaby, RealityTVMagazine and Soaps.

The full article was originally published at Media Post, but is no longer available.

Penthouse Buys FriendFinder

Posted on December 12, 2007

Penthouse_mg_friendfinder_logaNEW YORK TIMES — Dec 12 — Penthouse Media, has acquired Various (FriendFinder) and its subsidiaries as part of a plan to expand its reach. Various operates more than 25 sites including AdultFriendfinder, and has more than 260 million members and 1.2 million paying subscribers. The combined revenue of both companies is projected to be $340 million in 2007. Penthouse was purchased in 2004 by PET Capital Partners, a group of private investors. FULL ARTICLE @ NEW YORK TIMES