PRESS RELEASE – ProSiebenSat.1 reported a solid 5% year-over-year revenue growth for Q2, reaching EUR 907M. The company is a significant player in European media, operating a variety of TV channels and digital platforms. Its Dating & Video segment, ParshipMeet Group, includes well-known dating platforms Parship, ElitePartner, eHarmony, and MeetMe. Despite the overall strong performance, this segment encountered some challenges, with revenues slightly declining by 9% to EUR 98M in Q2, including a 13% decrease in the Dating business and a 4% drop in Video revenues, largely due to a competitive market environment.
Category: ElitePartner
ParshipMeet Group Q1 Financial Update
OPW – The ParshipMeet Group reports a 9% decrease in revenues for the Dating & Video segment, totaling EUR 107M, down from EUR 117M in the Q1 2023. Specifically, revenues in the Dating unit fell by 12%, influenced by intense market competition and the ongoing impact of Germany's Fair Consumer Contracts Act, which significantly affects the subscription models of Parship and ElitePartner. Additionally, revenues in the Video unit decreased by 4%, also due to a highly competitive environment.
ProSiebenSat.1 Ends 2023 With Strong Fourth Quarter and Expects Revenue Growth in 2024
PROSIEBENSAT1 – ProSiebenSat.1 Group's dating business faced challenges in 2023, with a 16% revenue decline to 434M Eur. This was influenced by competitive market conditions and legal changes affecting subscription models. In 2022, the Fair Consumer Contracts Act came into force in Germany, which particularly affects the subscription on Parship and ElitePartner. Despite this, the company aims to strengthen profitability and reduce debt, focusing on investing more in local content. For 2024, they anticipate a slight revenue increase, with a stable EBITDA.
ProSiebenSat.1 Q3 Financial Results
PROSIEBENSAT1 – The Q3 2023 results presentation by ProSiebenSat.1 outlines various operational updates, financials, and outlooks for the company. Key highlights included:
- The Group's Q3 revenue decreased 3% YOY to EUR 888M.
- Adjusted net income declined by 41% in Q3 YOY. The decline in the Group's Q3 revenue is attributed to several factors such as challenging macroeconomic environment and decrease in advertising revenue.
- In Q3 2023, the Dating & Video segment experienced a decline in both revenues and adjusted EBITDA. The Dating revenue was Eur 62M, down 12% YOY. As of Mar 2022, subscription businesses of Parship and ElitePartner had been affected by fair consumer contract regulations in Germany, negatively impacting the dating revenues since Q3 2022, with major effect from Q2 2023 onwards.
New Co-CEOs at ParshipMeet Group
OPW – July 20 – After 7 years, Tim Schiffers, the incumbent CEO, is handing over the baton to Marc Schachtel and Geoff Cook. Marc Schachtel (formerly COO) and Geoff Cook (Founder/CEO, The Meet Group) are now co-CEOs of ParshipMeet Group. Henning Rönneberg is CFO.
Tim successfully completed the merger of Parship Group with The Meet Group and is moving on to new challenges outside the organization.
Marc will lead the entire matchmaking business as CEO of Parship Group: Parship, ElitePartner, eharmony, LOVOO. See Marc's Linkedin post.
Geoff will continue to be responsible for the Social Dating & Entertainment division: MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, GROWLr and the live video streaming solution vPaaS, which powers the video solution of some of the largest dating and social apps in the world. See Geoff's Linkedin post.
The Meet Group Acquired and Looking at 2022 IPO as ParshipMeet!
BUSINESSWIRE – Sep 4 – The Meet Group announced the completion of its acquisition by the parent company of eharmony. ParshipMeet Group was created to manage The Meet Group and Parship Group. It now operates MeetMe, LOVOO, Tagged, Skout, GROWLr, eharmony, Parship and ElitePartner.
The Meet Group focuses on community while bringing social entertainment to dating, monetizing through livestreaming video. Parship Group brands are market leaders in the matchmaking space; focused on serious relationships and monetizing through subscriptions.
The all-cash transaction represents an enterprise value of ~$500m.
"We are thrilled to combine with a globally leading matchmaking company," said Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group. "We believe this deal will help define the future of dating. We will continue to focus on… building the best dating features in the world, …investing in livestreaming…, and discovering opportunities to expand and grow – organically and through strategic relationships, including our video-platform-as-a-service offering". 195k+ dating games are played each day across The Meet Group's apps, up 104% since March.
"The Meet Group's livestreaming video platform is unique and well positioned for a post-pandemic world where video becomes a critical part of finding and screening first dates," said Tim Schiffers, CEO of ParshipMeet Group. "By combining The Meet Group's assets with Parship Group's strengths, we've created a global dating leader and one of the most diversified portfolios of dating brands in the world. …We see significant potential to further the growth of The Meet Group's video platform-as-a-service products, as well opportunities for knowledge-sharing and cross-selling."
ParshipMeet Group is jointly owned by ProSiebenSat.1, a leading free-to-air TV broadcaster and video entertainment company in the German-speaking markets, and General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies.
See full article at Businesswire
Additionally, from ProSiebenSat1:
ParshipMeet Group has revenues of EUR 451 million and adjusted EBITDA of EUR 95 million as of H1 2020, for the last 12 months. Double-digit annual growth rates expected
The combined company operates as ParshipMeet Group, a newly-minted unicorn and a leading global player in the online dating market. ProSiebenSat.1 owns 53% and General Atlantic 43% in ParshipMeet Group. The remainder is held by management.
Rainer Beaujean, Chairman & CFO, ProSiebenSat.1 said, "This investment case is also another strong proof of concept of our ability to use the strengths of our Entertainment business to support the growth and development of consumer-facing digital platform and commerce businesses."
Joern Nikolay, MD, General Atlantic said, "We believe in the ability of ParshipMeet Group…to bring transformative digital innovation to the global online dating sector…and harness the power of technology."
Tim Schiffers, CEO, ParshipMeet Group said, "Online dating, and interactive live video in particular, is a global megatrend that will continue to transform all of our lives in the future. …Our brands span the whole spectrum of the online dating market: meeting, dating and falling in love. …We are perfectly positioned for sustained long-term growth."
ProSiebenSat.1 and General Atlantic are evaluating an IPO for ParshipMeet Group in 2022.
See full article at ProsiebenSat.1 website
See the top news on The Meet Group
See the top news on Parship Group
German Dating App, LemonSwan, Raised a 7-Digit Round
GRUENDER – July 29 – There are currently ~17M single people in Germany. The online dating revenue in the country will be reach ~212M euros in 2020. The market is dominated by large providers such as Parship or Elitepartner, who aggressively advertise on TV and at S-Bahn stations. So are the large pieces of the cake already distributed? Arne Kahlke and Paul Uhlig don't believe that. The two are founders of dating app Lemon Swan. The app, which claims 250K users, launched 3 years ago. Kahlke has a lot of experience in connecting people. He not only built up Parship's marketing, but also founded ElitePartner in 2004 and sold the company to ProSiebenSat1. Lemon Swan's matching process is similar to that of ElitePartner and Parship – the app works with a psychological personality test and a matching algorithm – but so-called bouncers are also used to check users identity. After a capital injection in January 2019, the start-up has now received fresh capital in the seven-figure range. With the money, LemonSwan wants to become profitable in the German-speaking region in the Q1 2021, and to expand internationally.
by Marie-Charlotte Maas
See full article at Gruender
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
Prosieben to Float Its Dating Business in 2022
FINANZEN.AT – June 10 – ProSieben is planning to spin off its dating business unit from the subsidiary Nucom and "bring it to the stock exchange at the right time at a profit," said board spokesman and CEO/CFO Rainer Beaujean. "We are currently targeting the 2022 financial year for this." ProSiebenSat.1 announced the acquisition of The Meet Group through Nucom for ~$500M in March. The meet shareholders approved the deal last week, now the antitrust authorities still have to agree. Prosieben will hold 55% of the merged online dating business, including the former Parship Group (Parship, ElitePartner, eharmony), and General Atlantic will hold 45%. The Parship Group was valued at €726M on the transaction's announcement date. "We are convinced that the takeover of The Meet Group will generate very high additional value," said Beaujean.
See full article at Finanzen.at
See the top news on The Meet Group See the top news on eharmony
See the top news on Parship See the top news on ElitePartner
Private Equity Outfit KKR Has Acquired 5.2% Stake in ProSiebenSat.1
TBI – May 12 – KKR has decided to invest in the broadcaster because it believes that the market is undervaluing the company. The investment marks the second time around with ProSiebenSat.1 for KKR. KKR's move comes six weeks after former CEO Max Conze left ProSiebenSat.1, following two years in the job. The former Dyson exec saw the company's share price tumble, while execs departed amid a strategy that included investing $500M in dating app developer The Meet Group. The company has now outlined new plans to turn away from e-commerce, with an eye on selling its NuCom arm (parent of Parship, ElitePartner, eharmony) and concentrating purely on entertainment.
by Stuart Thomson
See full article at TBI
See the top news on The Meet Group See the top news on eharmony
See the top news on Parship See the top news on ElitePartner
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.coms
ProSiebenSat.1 Wants to Save Itself With Streaming and Dating
WELT – Mar 16 – CEO Max Conze has completely rebuilt the ProSiebenSat.1 station group. But profits continue to plummet, the stock keeps falling and the management staff is leaving. Most recently, the broadcasting group generated €4.14B in revenue and an adjusted profit of €872M euros . The net debt is €2.25B. A few days ago, Max Conze announced that the group, together with the US financial investor General Atlantic, would take over the American app developer The Meet Group for ~$500M.
Q: Mr. Conze, how satisfied are you with the financial results?
A: We are in the middle of transforming our business into a digital group and we are on the right track. The TV advertising market is certainly difficult right now but at the moment less than half of our revenue is generated by traditional TV advertising. We invested a lot into digital advertising business which has already grown 38% this year.
Q: Your e-commerce companies are bundled in the Nucom Group, in which the financial investor General Atlantic holds 25.1 % of the shares. Can you afford The Meet Group acquisition with a net debt of €2.25B?
A: Yes, we would not have made the offer otherwise. We will hold 55% of the new unit, while GA would increase the shares to 45%. The Parship group with the brands Parship, Eharmony and Elite Partner together with The Meet Group would represent a company value of ~€1.2B.
Q: Would it be large enough to be spun off from the NuCom Group and listed on the stock exchange?
A: If we can turn the combined Parship-Meet Group into a global leader, it would be logical to aim for an IPO in the US over the next two or three years.
by Klaus Boldt
See full article at Welt
See the top news on The Meet Group
See the top news on Parship Group