Category: FriendFinder
FriendFinder Networks Sold Its Penthouse Subsidiary
BUSINESS WIRE – Feb 24 – FriendFinder Networks have sold all of the shares of the companies comprising FFN's Penthouse enterprise to Penthouse Global Media. I asked FFN's CEO for comment. Here's the inside track. "We decided that given our intense focus on dating and cams, we weren't in the best position to give Penthouse the undivided attention it deserves, and Kelly Holland is really passionate about giving it this undivided attention and raised the money to do a management buy-out. We're going to be continuing with live caming of Penthouse models so this arrangement was really a win-win for both parties."
See full article at BusinessWire
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
AdultFriendFinder Offers One Month Free To Users Of Its Competitors
BUSINESS WIRE – Feb 4 – FriendFinder Networks promises to never use female bots with fake profiles as a method of luring new members. The company is now offering free one-month Gold memberships to anyone who signs up on AdultFriendFinder and can show proof of membership in a competitive adult dating site.
See full article at Businesswire
FriendFinder Might Sell Penthouse
NYPOST – Oct 20 – Adult magazine Penthouse, at one time a top-selling rival to Playboy, is going to be sold again by its current owner, FriendFinder Networks.
Andrew Conru: “Fembots Do Not Belong In The Internet Dating Industry”
BUSINESSWIRE – Sep 15 – There has been recent publicity surrounding Ashley Madison, particularly allegations that it used computer-generated female "bots" to lure men to become paying members. "FriendFinder has never created and used computer-generated accounts," commented Dr. Andrew Conru, Chairman and Founder of FriendFinder. “This business practice is repugnant to us; it shows a total lack of respect for the users. Companies like AshleyMadison need to exit this industry,” said Dr. Conru.
Match Must Use Size To Overcome Challenges Facing Public Dating Services
DEAL REPORTER – Aug 24 – OPW – Aug 24 – As The Match Group moves toward an IPO, it must use its size advantage to overcome the difficulties that have plagued other dating companies that have gone public. FriendFinder traded on NASDAQ and was delisted in 2013 for failing to trade above the USD 1 level. Zoosk filed for an IPO in 2014, intending to raise more than USD 100m, but withdrew the application citing unfavorable market conditions. In the past 2 years, shares of Snap Interactive have not been above the USD 1 mark with stock plunging 85%, and Spark Networks has seen its stock decline 60%, to USD 3.11. Chinese dating firm Jiayuan International has seen its US-listed stock rise 22% in the last year, however, their success is partly a by-product of China's booming economy. "Match's size will be an advantage over other publicly traded dating entities," said Mark Brooks, an industry consultant with Courtland Brooks. Its scale and brand awareness means it probably pays much less to acquire new users. “This is very clearly a game of size,” Brooks asserted, adding that Match.com does not have to pay search giant Google for every new member because it has built a brand through time, helped by TV and radio advertising.
by David B. Wilkerson & Marina Temkin & Louise Bleakley
Read the full article
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Adult FriendFinder Was Warned About The Hack
CHANNEL4 – May 27 – The owners of Adult FriendFinder were warned that it had been hacked more than two months before Channel 4 News exposed the leak of 4M people's sensitive data. The company said the warning ended up in its spam folder, despite an email from an employee indicating that it had been read.
by Geoff White
See full article at Channel4
AdultFriendFinder’s Profiles For Sale For $17K
THEHILL – May 26 – According to multiple reports, the giant database of user data stolen from AdultFriendFinder is going for 70 bitcoins ($17K) on the dark Web. It would be easy for hackers to user the leaked information to identify people in real life through Facebook. This could put users at risk of extortion and blackmail. The hacker is also offering to break into any company or website for ~$170K worth of bitcoin.
by Cory Bennett
See full article at TheHill
Hacked Data Reveals That Only 6% Of UK Adult FriendFinder Users Are Female
DAILYMAIL.COM – May 25 – Only 1,596 of the 26,939 users with a UK email address identified as female. That means the ratio of male to female AFF members in the UK is 16:1. ~4M users of AdultFriendFinder had highly sensitive information, including birthdays, ZIP codes, sexual orientations and email and IP addresses, exposed during the hack.
by Evan Bleier
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk
AdultFriendFinder Confirms Data Breach
USA TODAY – May 22 - AdultFriendFinder has contacted law enforcement and high-profile security firm FireEye to investigate a data breach. Information including sexual preference, marital status and other personal data (dates of birth, email addresses and addresses) for as many as 4M members may have been stolen.
by Mike Snider
See full article at USA Today