Category: All Acquisitions

Compete Acquired By TNS For $75 Million

Posted on March 3, 2008

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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

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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

Loopylove.com Hires Inferno For £3m Task

Posted on November 20, 2007

Loopylove_logoBRAND REPUBLIC — Nov 20 — Associated Northcliffe Digital has hired Inferno to help relaunch its dating website, LoopyLove.com. The agency will handle the press and promotion of outdoor and ambient activity which will aim to drive traffic to the website. LoopyLove is operated by online dating business Allegran, which was acquired by Associated Northcliffe last year. Allegran also operates Girls Date For Free, Dating for Parents, Pocado, and Dreams Discovered. FULL ARTICLE @ BRAND REPUBLIC

Mark Brooks: Associated Newspapers bought Allegran ~May last year. It's been downhill since then according to Alexa. Loopylove has gone from ~5,000 to ~20,000 from May 2006 to November 2007. GirlsDateForFree, from ~4k to ~15k. Pocado, from ~15k to ~45k. All seemed to take a steep dive around May, recover, and then go into gradual decline. The current Hitwise U.K. rankings are…

  • U.K., Hitwise ~ 10/07
    1 Sex in the UK
    2 PlentyofFish
    3 Gaydar.co.uk
    4 DatingDirect
    5 Match
    6 BeNaughty
    7 GirlsDateForFree
    8 I Am Free Tonight
    9 LoopyLove
    10 FriendsReunited Dating

Microsoft Takes 1.6% Stake in Facebook For $240 Million

Posted on October 24, 2007

Fm_2OPW — Oct 24 — Facebook is valued at $15 billion based on their ad deal with Microsoft. You can expect more investment money to flow into the social networking space based on this valuation. Do you think this will have positive repercussions for the online personals industry and internet dating company valuations? – Mark Brooks