Match Group – Page 81 – Online Personals Watch

Match Must Use Size To Overcome Challenges Facing Public Dating Services

Posted on August 26, 2015

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
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The Match Group Appoints New CFO Prior To IPO

Posted on August 21, 2015

PR NEWSWIRE – Aug 20 - Gary Swidler joins The Match Group from Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he worked for 18 years. Mr. Swidler is expected to begin in September.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Why Invest In The Match Group

Posted on August 18, 2015

SEEKING ALPHA – Aug 17 – A spin off of The Match Group is in the works. The company has strong growth potential. Data from IBISWorld shows that online and mobile dating services comprise 75% of the U.S. dating services industry, followed by matchmakers (14%) and singles events (7%). A true disruptive innovation is Tinder. The app is making online dating in general more mainstream. Many analysts have doubt about Tinder's profitability. Most of young singles are not interested in paying for online dating. The fact that there is only a meager % of users who do pay should not weaken the app's profitability. Tinder is focused on younger adults but is becoming more popular among older adults while retaining current members who become older and/or directing them to other IAC's dating services. There are also more streams of revenue that the company can utilize and has discussed implementing. The purposes of the app are expanding. "We want Tinder to be the start of every new friendship, relationship, connection and business relationship", said CEO Sean Rad.

by Nicholas Vidger
See full article at Seeking Alpha

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IAC Looks For Love In PlentyOfFish

Posted on August 17, 2015

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR – Aug 14 – Last month Match Group, agreed to buy POF for $575M in cash, the highest price it has ever paid for any of its various dating sites. To industry watchers, the high price that POF fetched was not all that surprising. IAC controlled 22% of the U.S. market before adding POF’s 4.9% share. According to Mark Brooks, Internet dating industry consultant and editor of Online Personals Watch, POF deal was mostly about timing. "Buying PlentyOfFish took one question off the table: What about the pressure from free sites, from POF? Now the answer is, 'We bought it.'" Many people looking for love will maintain profiles in several places at once. "One thing we know is that if we can't convert someone on one site, we can usually get them on a competing brand," says Brooks. "There are people who won’t try Match.com, but they will try PlentyOfFish." Analysts are eager for the spin-off. Chris Merwin, a senior U.S. Internet analyst at Barclays in New York, commented that IAC had been held back by Ask.com. "Now that there will be a true value for the Match Group in the marketplace, we think IAC will be able to unlock tremendous value." Brooks, too, feels shareholders are excited that Match Group will now be something "they can touch and feel."

by Lila MacLellan
The full article was originally published at Institutional Investor, but is no longer available.

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The Match Group Q2 Financial Results: Revenue Up 19%, Paid Subscribers Up 18%

Posted on July 30, 2015

IAC – July 29 – The Match Group revenue increased 19% to $254.7M. Operating income is down 16%. The number of paid subscribers grew 18% YOY globally to ~4.1M. Tinder was the major contributor. It is interesting to note that Tinder has more paying subscribers outside of North America. The Match Group international paid subscribers grew 34% YOY. On July 14, 2015, Match announced the acquisition of PlentyOfFish for $575M in cash. Gregg Blatt, Chairman of Match Group, disclosed that IAC paid about 13 times EBITDA.

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‘PlentyOfFish’ Acquisition Bolsters IAC’s Dating App Dominance

Posted on July 23, 2015

SEEKING ALPHA – July 21 – InterActiveCorp now has complete control over the mobile dating app market in English-speaking countries. Meanwhile PlentyOfFish's mobile app is showing strong growth in Brazil, France, and Spain, strengthening IAC's position in these significant markets. Its likely POF's mobile app is generating annual revenues of ~$50 million. Badoo and LOVOO are the largest remaining worldwide competitors, and its likely POF is the #3 competitor worldwide.

SeekingAlpha estimates POF is grossing ~$40k per day, a ~30% yoy revenue growth. Annual revenue on iOS in the USA alone is ~$15 million which would make it ~15% of POF's $100,000,000 revenue. Sources suggest that IAC paid 12.8x EBITDA for POF. Mobile revenue likely comprised half POF's revenue.

by Max Lukenbach
See full article at Seeking Alpha

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Match Bought POF, And Cements Its Position As Market Leader

Posted on July 16, 2015

MARKETWATCH – July 15 – The Match Group announced that it will buy PlentyofFish for $575M in cash before going public. "In this industry, size really matters," says Mark Brooks, a dating-industry analyst and the editor of Online Personals Watch. "The Match Group gains very sizable key strategic assets and very effectively cements its position as market leader." The US online dating industry is dominated by IAC, with 21.8% market share. While each site has its own secret set of algorithms, the industry is consolidating and becoming more efficient from a business perspective.

"Making ideal matches is a virgin science," Brooks says. "We don't really know when we've been successful, so we don't really know when the algorithm has actually worked." That will soon change with the popularity of location-based apps and mobile technology, he says. "We'll be able to survey singles before and after dates." "Dating algorithms do exactly what they're designed to do, which is to match to sets for data,"” says Amy Webb, author of "Data, a Love Story: How I Gamed Dating to Meet My Match." Some dating sites beg to differ: "eHarmony has only a divorce rate of 3.86%, well below the national average of 40% to 50%."

by Quentin Fottrell
See full article at Marketwatch

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Match Group Buys PlentyOfFish For $575M

Posted on July 14, 2015

TECH CRUNCH – July 14 – Match Group has agreed to acquire PlentyOfFish (POF) for $575 million in cash and expects to close early in Q4. Tinder flicked the monetization switch this spring. Singles are a core demographic for marketing other types of self-improvement services where Match/IAC also plays.

"As more people than ever use more dating apps than ever with more frequency than ever, PlentyOfFish’s addition both brings new members into our family of products and deepens the lifetime relationship we have with our users across our portfolio," said Sam Yagan, CEO of The Match Group. "I look forward to working closely with Markus and extending the company’s impressive growth trajectory." The acquisition adds 3 million daily actives to IAC’s digital media portfolio of more than 150 brands and 20 operating businesses. Match Group covers ~50 brands in the dating, education and fitness space. IAC reports 370 million unique monthly users and 2.5 billion monthly visits to its entire portfolio.

by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch

Mark Brooks: Recently Markus said he was at a $100 million revenue run rate. Match bought Singlesnet, OKCupid, then Datehookup. So the writing has been on the wall for some time. It was just a matter of price. Tinder showed that Match Group could seed and grow a credible threat to the POF business. It's a good time for Markus to join with Match Group, and cash in his chips.

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The Match Group Spin-Off Preliminary Bullish Thesis

Posted on July 14, 2015

SEEKING ALPHA – July 13 – IAC is planning to spin-off its Match Group and pursue an IPO for the new company. IAC has a history of successful spin-offs of significant business such as Expedia, LendingTree, TicketMaster and Home Shopping Network. The Match Group dominates ~50% of the $2.2B eDating market. 88% of Match group revenues are generated in the dating business. Tinder held ~70% of the mobile dating market and tripled its reach between Nov '13 and Mar '15. If Tinder could convert ~2% (typical freemium conversion rate) of its 50M users to a $20 per month, it could drive an additional $240M per year, which is ~25% of Match Group dating revenues in 2014.

by Lior Ronen
See full article at SeekingAlpha

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Match Group Could Fetch ~$1.2B From Its IPO

Posted on June 28, 2015

BLOOMBERG – June 26 – IAC’s Match Group plans to to sell ~20% of its common stock this year. The sale could fetch $600M to $1.2B if 10% – 20% of the business is sold to the public, according to Cowen and Co., valuing the division at $6B or more. IAC bought Match.com in 2003. Meetic joined in 2009 along with People Media. In 2011, IAC spent $50M for OKCupid. In 2012 came Tinder which "gamified" the online dating process. "There’s a lot of people that just weren’t prepared to get onto Internet dating," says Mark Brooks, a dating-website analyst and consultant at Courtland Brooks. "Tinder warmed people up to the psychology that it’s not a dating site. Everybody is on it; it’s fun. That’s really the thrill ride here." But free and fun dating apps can be volatile, while cannibalizing customers from such paid services as Match.com, Brooks says. Last year, as the popularity of free-to-use Tinder grew, paid subscriptions at Match fell by ~100K in the Q4, compared with Q3. Now IAC is trying to make money out of Tinder.

by Alex Barinka
See full article at Bloomberg

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