All Acquisitions – Page 7 – Online Personals Watch

Match Group & Harmonica: More Details on the Acquisition

Posted on August 7, 2019

MENABYTES – Aug 7 – Match Group has acquired Egyptian online dating startup Harmonica. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed yet. Founded in early 2017 by Sameh Saleh, Tamer Saleh, Shaymaa Aly & Aly Khaled, Harmonica is designed to help Muslims find a life partner. Harmonica's small team of 12 full-time employees (including the founders) is joining Match Group and will work on an English app as well. Harmonica currently has an Arabic-only app. Harmonica will remain headquartered in Cairo, with Sameh Saleh continuing as CEO. It will be Match Group's first office in the Middle East.

by Mohammed Salah
See full article at MenaBytes

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Match Group Reports Q2 2019 Results, Invests in Egyptian Dating App Harmonica

Posted on August 6, 2019

MATCH GROUP – Aug 6 – Match Group Q2 total Revenue grew 18% YOY to $498M. Average subscribers increased 18% to 9.1M, up from 7.7M from Q2 2018. Tinder average subscribers were 5.2M in Q2 2019, increasing 503K sequentially and 1.5M YOY. Operating income was $173M, up 15% YOY. Match Group has also invested in and brought on the team behind Harmonica, a dating app based in Egypt. Match Group will further develop this app and invest in product and marketing to expand into Asia and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) that are predominantly Muslim.

See full article at Match Group website

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Scruff Acquires Jack’d for an Undisclosed Sum

Posted on July 10, 2019

SYS-CON – July 10 – Perry Street Software, a New York-based gay mobile software developer and the parent company of Scruff, has acquired gay dating app Jack'd. Jack'd will continue to operate as a stand-alone app. Since its launch in 2010, Jack'd has grown to ~5M members worldwide. Perry Street will invest significant resources to upgrade the technology and reliability of the Jack'd app. In the coming months, Jack'd members can expect to see the removal of all programmatic advertising, enhanced controls over privacy and security, and new features such as improved messaging, redesigned Match, richer search, and the ability to include video as part of member private albums or in chat.

See full article at Sys-con

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Spark Nearing Zoosk Close, Sets EBITDA Target

Posted on June 19, 2019

SEEKING ALPHA – June 19 – Spark Networks targets adjusted EBITDA of $50M in 2020. The company says the California Department of Business Oversight granted a permit allowing Spark to issue securities in exchange for the outstanding Zoosk securities. The permit followed a hearing that was the last major milestone in the Zoosk purchase. The acquisition is expected to close on July 1. Spark shares are up 2% to $10.80.

by Brandy Betz
See full article at Seeking Alpha

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Peruvian Dating App Mi Media Manzana Ceases Operations

Posted on June 19, 2019

CONTXTO.COM – June 19 – Mi Media Manzana, the Peruvian online dating startup turned the lights off and exited countries where it was operating including Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. After six years of operations, the company will be formally over on June 20. Although Mi Media Manzana was the first Peruvian startup to raise venture capital funds ($2M in four different funding rounds), money still ran out. Liquidity issues, in addition to very low user-retention rates, were the main causes for the demise. "We ran out of cash before reaching our break-even point," said CEO Pedro Neira. In total, Mi Media Manzana managed to acquire 2.5M users during its six years of operation. At one point it was also Latin America's most downloaded Google Play dating app. The startup's main mission was to help singles find a true, meaningful relationship.

by Victor Cortés
See full article at Contxto

Mark Brooks: You can contact the CEO at pedroneiraf@datinglatam.com to discuss buying this company.

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Russmedia Acquires Majority Stake in Hungarian Dating Site Randivonal

Posted on June 7, 2019

DER BRUTKASTEN – June 6 – The Austrian company Russmedia International acquires the majority stake in Randivonal, a Hungarian online dating site. Founded in 1999, Randivonal is Hungary's leading online dating site today. The company is headquartered in Budapest and employs 25 people.

See full article at Der Brutkasten

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Slow Dating App Once Acquires Pickable

Posted on May 30, 2019

PRESS RELEASE – May 28 – Once has acquired dating app Pickable in a non-disclosed deal. This move sees the formation of the Once Dating Group. Once was founded by Jean Meyer in 2015 and boasts ~10M users globally, with five local language versions across Europe and North America including; USA, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. Pickable was founded by Clémentine Lalande and launched in late 2018. Pickable has seen strong growth with 1M users globally.

See full article at News Anyway

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U.S. Pushes Chinese Owner of Grindr to Divest the Dating App

Posted on March 27, 2019

REUTERS – Mar 26 – Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd is seeking to sell Grindr, the gay dating app it has owned since 2016, after a U.S. government national security panel raised concerns about its ownership. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has informed Kunlun that its ownership of Grindr constitutes a national security risk. Kunlun had said last August it was preparing for an IPO of Grindr. As a result of CFIUS' intervention, Kunlun has now shifted its focus to an auction process to sell Grindr outright. Grindr has hired investment bank Cowen Inc to handle the sale process, and is soliciting acquisition interest from U.S. investment firms, as well as Grindr's competitors. Kunlun acquired a majority stake in Grindr in 2016 for $93M. It bought out the remainder of the company in 2018.

by Carl O'Donnell, Liana B. Baker & Echo Wang
See full article at Reuters

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Spark Networks to Acquire Zoosk

Posted on March 22, 2019

PR NEWSWIRE – Mar 22 – Spark Networks today announced its entry into a definitive agreement to acquire Zoosk. With the addition of Zoosk, Spark will more than double in size and the combined business will be considerably more valuable than the two stand-alone entities. In 2020, Spark expects Adjusted EBITDA to exceed $50M. Approximately two-thirds of the combined company's revenue will be generated in North America. Spark will acquire 100% of Zoosk's shares with a combination of cash and stock valuing the company at ~$255M based on the closing price of Spark Networks stock on March 20, 2019. The transaction is expected to close early in Q3 2019.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Why The Meet Group Bought Gay Dating App Growlr

Posted on March 8, 2019

PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL – Mar 8 – The Meet Group acquired gay dating app Growlr for $11.8M this week. Growlr will join Meet's existing portfolio of MeetMe, Skout, Tagged and Lovoo. Meet announced the Growlr acquisition ahead of its Q4 and full year 2018 earnings call, when it saw $178.6M in total revenue, a 44% jump from 2017. Meet's been in talks with Growlr for more than a year, and Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, said the acquisition is part of its goal to expand into different audiences it doesn't already serve. The app, which counts ~200K global daily active users, came at a good value, he added, and once Meet integrates its live video features into Growlr, he believes it will be the first gay dating app in the country to do so and growth should follow. Growlr has just two employees who will join Meet.