Category: All Acquisitions

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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Momo Acquires Tantan

Posted on February 23, 2018

Momo tantan logosFINANCIAL TIMES – Feb 23 – Momo paid for the top Chinese dating app $600.9M in cash and 5.3M shares. That brings the total value of the deal to ~$760M. Tantan, dubbed Chinese Tinder, had raised $120M, including a $70m last year. It has enabled 5B matches since its launch. (Tinder claims 8B matches.) Tantan's management will stay and the companies will continue to operate independently.

by Yuan Yang
See full article at Financial Times

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General Atlantic Buys 25% Of ProSieben’s €1.8B Digital Business

Posted on February 23, 2018

Parship elitepartner logosPRIVATE EQUITY NEWS – Feb 22 – U.S. private-equity firm General Atlantic has bought a 25% stake in NuCom Group, the digital business of German media company ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. The deal valued NuCom at €1.8B, including debt, ProSieben said in a statement. The unit consists of 10 businesses, including online dating site Parship Elite Group and energy price-comparison business Verivox, and generated ~€650M of revenue in 2017. As part of the deal, ProSieben and General Atlantic have bought the minority stakes in Verivox and Parship held by Oakley Capital. The London buyout firm retained minority stakes in both businesses when it sold them to ProSieben in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Parship delivered an nearly five-times return on Oakley's invested capital, while the Verivox investment returned two and a half times its money.

by William Louch
See full article at Private Equity News

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Badoo Is Looking For A Buyer

Posted on January 23, 2018

Badoo logo 2018CNBC – Jan 23 – Badoo is seeking a sale that could value the company at $1.5B and reportedly hired J.P. Morgan Chase to help it find a buyer. Possible buyers include Match Group, non-U.S. based strategic buyers, and private equity buyers. Badoo is now owned by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev and is also a majority owner of dating app Bumble (Badoo owned 79 percent of Bumble as of March 2016, according to TechCrunch).

by Alex Sherman & Leslie Picker
See full article at CNBC

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