Category: All Acquisitions

How Much Was eHarmony Sold For?

Posted on October 30, 2018

Eharmony logo 2018FINANCIAL TIMES – Oct 30 – ProSiebenSat.1, one of Germany's largest media groups, has agreed to buy US dating site eHarmony as part of its drive to create the world's biggest online matchmaker. ProSieben already owns stake in Parship Elite, a successful German dating business. ProSieben, which will merge eHarmony with Parship Elite did not disclose financial terms of the deal. But one person briefed on the acquisition said it valued eharmony at $85M – making it a surprisingly cheap date compared with rival Match, which has a market value of $13.7B. eHarmony, which raised ~$100M during just one fundraising round 15 years ago, has spent ~$1B on marketing in recent years, according to the person.

by Matthew Garrahan
See full article at Financial Times

Mark Brooks: eHarmony was sold for more than $85 million, that's for sure. Its brand value alone is worth double that. I'd put them at North of $300 million valuation.

UPDATE: Turns out FT's source was right on. eHarmony was indeed sold for $85m, so I need to eat my proverbial hat. Additional commentary on the Courtland Brooks blog. 

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Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Media (Parship) Acquires eHarmony

Posted on October 29, 2018

Eharmony prosiebensat1 logosREUTERS – Oct 29 – Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 Media has bought eHarmony, in the first significant deal since it carved out a new e-commerce joint venture with General Atlantic. eHarmony expects 2.8 million new users this year, and complements ProSieben's own Parship dating franchise which is the market leader in Germany. Terms were not disclosed. Parship and sister brand Elite Partner, count 2 million registrations a year. eHarmony has brand awareness of nearly 90% and a very big user base that can be served better from a common platform. ProSieben is pushing to diversify away from its core commercial TV franchise, where ad revenues are flat and the sector is being disrupted by streaming platforms like Netflix. The Munich-based broadcaster bought eharmony via its newly created Nucom division, in which investor General Atlantic took a 24.9% stake in February. Nucom owns 94% of Parship. eharmony raised $113 million in two funding rounds. Most recently in 2004, Tuputele Ventures, TCV, Sequoia Capital and Fayez Sarofim & Co. eHarmony CEO Grant Langston will continue to run the business while representatives of Parship will join its board.

by Douglas Busvine & Joern Poltz
See full article at Reuters

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Korean CareLabs Acquires Dating App Operator BNK Lab For ~$10M

Posted on July 11, 2018

Bank lab dating appTHE INVESTOR – July 10 – Korean health care platform firm CareLabs has acquired BNK Lab, the operator of social dating apps, in a bid to strengthen its services in beauty and dating sector. CareLabs paid 11B won ($9.85M) in return for the entire 50K shares of BNK Lab. BNK Lab's platforms boasts a combined monthly active users of 240k. They include Babitalk, which provides information on cosmetic surgery, and multiple dating apps such as DangYeonsi and Sweetme.

by Ahn Sung-mi
See full article at The Investor

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Fosun Buys Matchmaking Service Provider From Chairman For $603M

Posted on July 6, 2018

Baihe.com logo 2017DEAL STREET ASIA – July 5 – Fosun International Ltd said it would buy 69% of match-making and dating service provider Baihe Jiayuan Network Group from Chairman Guo Guangchang for 4B yuan ($603.4M) cash. Baihe Jiayuan has ~310M registered users and ~200 offline service centres covering 75 Chinese cities. In May, Fosun's tourism arm said it was hunting for more overseas deals to grow its leisure vacation business.

by Donny Kwok
See full article at Deal Street Asia

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Match Group Acquires A Controlling Stake In Hinge

Posted on June 20, 2018

Match Group Hinge LogosBLOOMBERG – June 20 – Match will take a 51% stake with the option to buy the remaining shares over the next year. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Since the redesign in 2016, the app's user base quadrupled, according to Justin McLeod, CEO of Hinge. The company hasn't released concrete data about it user base, but Hinge is the fifth-highest grossing dating iPhone app, according to AppAnnie. Match Group first invested in Hinge in September 2017, taking a seat on it's board.

by Joshua Brustein
See full article at Bloomberg

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Momo Successfuly Closing Tantan Transaction

Posted on May 15, 2018

Momo tantan logosPR NEWSWIRE – May 11 – Momo has successfully closed the transaction with regard to its acquisition of 100% equity stake of Tantan Limited, previously announced on Feb 23, 2018. Momo is one of China's leading mobile-based social and entertainment platforms.

See full article at PR Newswire

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China’s 21st Richest Person To Purchase 70% Of Baihe

Posted on May 6, 2018

Baihe.com logo 2017TECHNODE – May 4 – Fosun International chairman and business magnate Guo Guangchang plans to purchase a majority stake in marriage and dating site Baihe.com for just under RMB 4B ($630M). Baihe.com's shareholders entered into an agreement with Yuanhong Investment to sell 869M shares at a price of RMB 4.6 ($0.72) per share. Guo controls 100% of Yuanhong, which will make him a controlling shareholder of Baihe.com when the deal goes through. There has been no indication as to when the purchase will be concluded. In Dec 2015 Baihe acquired rival dating and marriage platform Jiayuan for $250M. The company then reorganized to become the Baihe Jiayaun Network Group in September 2017.

by Christopher Udemans
See full article at Technode

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Badoo Acquires Dating App Huggle And All-female Team

Posted on March 19, 2018

Badoo huggle logosBUSINESS CLOUD – Mar 16 – Dating app Badoo has acquired dating app Huggle along with its internal marketing team. Huggle is a dating and friendship app which matches users based on the places they have in common. It was launched in 2016 by co-founders Valerie Stark and Stina Sanders. The brand has since attracted 500k users, including celebrities such as Katie Price and Bella Thorne.

See full article at Business Cloud

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Christian Connection Acqui-hires ChristianSingleMix.com

Posted on March 2, 2018

Christianconnection csm logosPRESS RELEASE – Mar 1 – ChristianConnection, the UK Christian dating site, has acquired ChristianSingleMix.com. ChristianSingleMix was founded in 2012 by Chris Kapnisis and Rod Keane, leaders of a church and community center in Essex.

OPW: The terms of the deal were not disclosed but ChristianSingleMix.com shut down at the end of January, 2018. Existing users of ChristianSingleMix are no longer able to access their accounts and are advised to create a new account at Christian Connection.

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BharatMatrimony Buys SecondShaadi.com

Posted on March 1, 2018

BharatMatrimony SeconShaadi logosVCCRICLE – Mar 1 – Matrimony.com, which owns BharatMatrimony, has acquired SecondShaadi.com from Accentium Web. Matrimony.com received board approval for the acquisition on Thursday. It did not disclose the value of the deal. "Buying SecondShaadi will help us consolidate our offerings and help divorcees and widowers get wider choices than ever before," Murugavel Janakiraman, CEO of Matrimony.com, said. Like SecondShaadi.com, Matrimony.com also operates a platform for divorcees called DivorceeMatrimony.com. In September 2016, the Bombay High Court had ruled in favour of SecondShaadi.com against a petition filed by People Interactive, which owns rival matrimonial portal Shaadi.com. Shaadi.com wanted Accentium Web Pvt. to stop using the word 'shaadi' in its domain name. However, the court said in its order that the word 'shaadi' is generic, and hence, Shaadi.com cannot stop others from using the word as a prefix or suffix for their portals.

by Keshav Sunkara
See full article at VCCircle

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