All Acquisitions – Page 8 – Online Personals Watch

The Meet Group Q4 Results, Acquires Gay App Growlr for $11.8M

Posted on March 6, 2019

BUSINESSWIRE – Mar 6 – For Q4 2018 revenue was $52.5M, up 31% YOY. GAAP net income was $4.3M, compared to a net loss of $68.1M the prior year Q4. The prior year Q4 included a non-cash asset impairment charge of $56.4M and a deferred tax charge of $7.7M. Adjusted EBITDA was $10.6M, compared to $10.5M in the prior Q4. In 2018 revenue was $178.6M, up from $123.8M in 2017. "In addition to reporting a strong quarter, I'm excited to announce the acquisition of Growlr, which provides a meaningful step into the large same-sex dating market and expands the base of users to whom we can deliver our live video product," said Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group. "Video transformed our business in 2018," continued Cook. "Our goal is to build the best place to meet new people through video. We increased the average monetization per daily active video user to 18c, up from 14c in the Q3, 2018." The Meet Group acquired Growlr for $11.8M, using $4.8M in cash and $7M from its existing line of credit, plus an earnout of $2M to be paid in annual $1M installments over the next two years if certain revenue metrics are achieved in each year. The Growlr app has ~200K global DAU, who exchange millions of messages each day.

See full article at The Meet Group website

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Match Group Fully Acquires Hinge

Posted on February 7, 2019

TECH CRUNCH – Feb 7 – Last year, Match Group acquired a 51% stake in Hinge. The company has now confirmed that it fully bought out Hinge in the past quarter, and today owns 100%. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Match believes Hinge can offer an alternative to those who aren't interested in using casual apps, like Tinder. As Match explained in November, it plans to double-down on marketing that focuses on Tinder's more casual nature and use by young singles, while positioning Hinge as the alternative for those looking for serious relationships. The company said it would also increase its investment in Hinge going forward, in order to grow its user base. "Hinge downloads are now 2.5 times more than the next largest app, and 40% of Bumble downloads," said Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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PeerStream Is Selling Its Dating Assets to Focus on LiveStreaming and Blockchain Initiatives

Posted on February 4, 2019

GLOBE NEWSWIRE – Feb 4 – PeerStream has completed a sale of its non-core dating assets to The Dating Company LLC, a private U.S.-based company. The dating assets consist principally of the FirstMet dating service, which was founded in 2007. Alex Harrington, CEO of PeerStream, commented: "as we shifted our corporate strategy it became clear that the dating assets were non-core and suffered from lack of management attention, resulting in underperformance in 2018, including a significant revenue decline and negative cash flow."

See full article at Globe Newswire

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SC Holdings Acquires 5% of UK Dating Company NowDating

Posted on January 24, 2019

GLOBE NEWSWIRE – Jan 23 – SC Holdings Corp., based in Hong Kong, has acquired 5% of NowDating Ltd., a UK company which developed a dating app "Now" Dating. Tan Yuen, SC Holding's CEO, received confidence votes internally to make acquisitions of companies with high growth potential irrespective of industry.

See full article at Nasdaq

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Japan’s Rakuten Sells Matchmaking Unit O-net to Polaris Capital

Posted on December 3, 2018

DEAL STREET ASIA – Nov 30 – Japan's e-commerce giant Rakuten has offloaded its entire stake in O-net, one of the country's largest matchmaking services, to Japanese private equity firm Polaris Capital for an undisclosed amount. O-net was founded in 1980 as OMMG and acquired by the e-commerce giant in 2007. The sale involves 280K shares, or 100% interest, in O-net, with the acquisition expected to be completed by the end of this year. O-net, which currently employs ~500 people, is engaged in marriage matchmaking services, event planning and management, publishing, and other businesses related to marriage service. As of last year, it had 46K members.

by Mars Woo
See full article at Deal Street Asia

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Shareholders Increase Stake in Spark Networks

Posted on November 5, 2018

FAIRFIELD CURRENT – Nov 4 – First Manhattan Co. boosted its holdings in Spark Networks by 197.3% during the Q3. The firm owned 225,170 shares. First Manhattan owned 6.99% of Spark Networks worth $2.6M at the end of the most recent quarter. Separately, PEAK6 Investments increased its position in Spark Networks by 7.4% in the Q2. PEAK6 Investments now owns 478,119 shares valued at $5.1M.

by Darrell McKinsey
See full article at Fairfield Current

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Wake-up Call, eHarmony Sold For A Song

Posted on October 30, 2018

OPW – Oct 30 – ProSiebenSat.1 bought eHarmony for $85 million. A real deal. They'll run on a common platform in the future. eHarmony will do roughly $90m revenues, and $0 profit in 2018. Customer lifetime value for eHarmony is $200, whereas Parship is at $570. More info here. Brand recognition for eHarmony stands above Tinder and on par with the likes of Instagram and American Airlines.

See full article at the Courtland Brooks blog.

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How Much Was eHarmony Sold For?

Posted on October 30, 2018

FINANCIAL 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

REUTERS – 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

THE 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.