Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Anotherfriend.com Buys MaybeFriends.com

OPW - Feb 8 - WebDev Ltd, the Internet company behind the largest Irish dating site www.anotherfriend.com has acquired the Irish dating site, www.maybefriends.com from the Saon Group for an undisclosed sum. AnotherFriend.com currently has ~60% market share of the Irish Online Dating market, with over 12.8M page impressions and 290K unique visitors monthly.

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IAC/Interactive, Barry Diller Pursue Online Dates

INVESTOR.COM - Dec 8 - The company's acquisition in May of Europe's Meetic.com, and its purchase of a 20% stake in China's Zhenai in September, are the latest confirmations that IAC and Diller covet online dating. For Meetic, IAC spent 15 Eur ($21), a share to boost its ownership to 80% from 27%. The shares, traded on the Euronext Paris exchange, were valued at 13.50 at the time, so IAC paid a 56% premium. IAC's dating sites are among its most profitable assets, says Needham & Co. analyst Kerry Rice. In the Q3, IAC reported that its online dating revenue rose 25% to $132.3M.

by Kevin Shalvey
See full article at Investor.com

Woo Media Acquired By Zoosk

PR WEB - Nov 3 - Woo Media, the live interactive video network, with web properties including WooMe.com, Shufflepeople.com, and Monsterchat.com, has announced its sale to Zoosk, the world’s largest social dating site. WooMe’s 10M users will soon be able to engage directly with Zoosk’s user base of over 100M users. In addition, all properties owned and operated by Woo Media will also be merged into Zoosk. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

See full article at PR Web

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Yahoo Offloads BharatMatrimony Holding Company Stake

ECONOMIC TIMES - Oct 12 - Yahoo has sold its stake in the company that owns the online matchmaking portal bharatmatrimony.com, valuing it at $190M. BharatMatrimony, which makes its money through subscriptions, competes with shaadi.com, jeevansathi.com and simplymarry.com, which is owned by the Times Group.

See full article at Economic Times

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Facebook Acquires Friend.ly

MASHABLE - Oct 11 - Facebook has acquired two-year-old social question-and-answer startup Friend.ly for an undisclosed sum. The Friend.ly team will join Facebook and focus on new products for the social network, while the Friend.ly site will continue to operate as a separate service. Friend.ly, a service similar to Formspring, raised $5.5M in Series A funding.

by Jennifer Van Grove
See full article at Mashable

Mark Brooks: Friend.ly was founded by Harvard and Stanford educated Ed Baker. It's a discovery engine to help people learn more about their current friends. A 'lite' idating app, of sorts. (Full Disclosure: Friend.ly was advised by the Courtland Brooks team)

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This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

IAC’s Match.com Buys 20% Stake in Zhenai

TECH CRUNCH - Sep 14 - Match.com has acquired a 20% interest in Zhenai, a provider of “online matchmaking services” in China, for an undisclosed sum. Launched in 2005 by CEO Dr. Song Li, Zhenai provides integrated Internet and telephone matchmaking services to Chinese singles looking for long-term relationships. Zhenai is said to boast a user base of ~30M registered members.

by Robin Wauters
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Read OPW interviews with Dr Song Li, CEO of Zhenai: June 2007, June 2008

FriendFinder Networks Acquires JigoCity for $65 million

PR NEWSWIRE - Sep 12 - FriendFinder Networks announced the acquisition of BDM Global Ventures, the company which owns the operations of JigoCity, for a combination of stock and warrants. The merger consideration will be ~$65M. JigoCity is a global social commerce organization committed to providing members with high quality daily deals that are relevant to their individual lifestyles.

See full article at PR Newswire

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This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch and DailyDealsObserver.

Cupid Buys Brazilian Dating Sites

STOCK MARKETWIRE - Aug 22 - Cupid has taken over several Brazilian online dating sites for a total of $0.75M. The sites include AondeNamoro.com, a traditional online dating site, and SolteirosComFilhos.com, a dating site for single parents. The combined sites have 1.4M members.

See full article at Stock Marketwire

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IAC Wins Control of Meetic

REUTERS - Aug 19 - IAC/InterActiveCorp has won control of French dating site Meetic, boosting its stake to 77.6%, after most shareholders agreed to IAC's 15 euros per share offer price. IAC, through two arms of its Match.com unit, had gained 73.7% of voting shares and 77.6% of Meetic's capital. Match.com has said it did not plan to delist Meetic after completion of the offer, which expired on Tuesday and valued the French company at 347M euros ($489M).

by Christian Plumb
See full article at Reuters

Mark Brooks: If you can't beat 'em join 'em.  Match's European business was folded under Meetic's wing in June 2009 when Meetic swapped 27% of its share's and 5 million Euro for Match Europe.  That was the first step in Match acquiring Meetic. 

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FriendFinder Acquired PerfectMatch.com

PR NEWSWIRE - July 18 - Adding to FriendFinder Networks' vast portfolio of social networks, PerfectMatch.com is a welcome addition to the platform of FFN's general audience sites. Unique to PerfectMatch.com is the Duet Total Compatibility System, which analyzes the "whole person" to find friends, taking into account each member's personality, values and ideals, life and love-style preferences to identify and find the person right for them. PerfectMatch.com founder Duane Dahl will join FriendFinder Networks as GM of the Company's general audience dating websites group, including Amigos.com, AsiaFriendFinder.com, BigChurch.com and SeniorFriendFinder.com.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Cupid Wins Over German Online Dating Business

STOCKOPEDIA - June 23 - Cupid has acquired a 75% stake in two German online businesses, OnlineLiebe GmbH and WomenWeb GmbH, for a total of €2.75M (£2.5M). The two companies are run together by the same team in Munich, led by founder Andreas von Maltzan, who is recognised as one of the pioneers and leaders in the German dating market, having established Neu.de, Germany’s most popular dating site, which was sold to Meetic in 2007. OnlineLiebe GmbH owns sites such as Zuckerjungs.de, Zuckerdaddys.de, Gleicheliebe.de and Gayjz.de. Its leading site, Zuckerjungs.de, was founded last year and has already become the market leader in the ‘Cougar’ dating niche in Germany, as well as in Austria and Switzerland. WomenWeb GmbH is Germany's largest online community network of female interest websites with domains such as Womenweb.de, Frauen.de, Kochrezepte.de, Allegraclub.de, Esoteriktreff.de, Hochzeits-club.de and eight other portals. Bill Dobbie, Cupid’s CEO, said: “This acquisition continues our stated strategy of international expansion and is an excellent opportunity for us to gain a foothold in the German-speaking markets.

See full article at Stockopedia

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Cupid Takes Over IndianDating.com

STOCK MARKET WIRE - Feb 14 - Online dating company Cupid has taken over IndianDating.com and several related domains for $200,000. IndianDating.com's activity is mainly focussed on the Indian community in North America. The sites have ~600K dating and matrimonial site members with the potential for significant expansion. According to the American Community Survey of the US Census Bureau, the Asian Indian population in the US was 2,570,000 in 2007 and had grown at 53% since 2000. FULL ARTICLE @ STOCK MARKET WIRE

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IAC’s Match.com Acquires OkCupid For $50M In Cash

TECH CRUNCH - Feb 2 - IAC’s Match.com is continuing its acquisition strategy today with the purchase of OkCupid for $50M in cash. The deal also includes future earnouts contingent upon performance. While Match.com has a significant userbase, OkCupid singles tend to be younger, which is why Match found it to be a useful acquisition. OkCupid, which has raised $6M, was co founded by Max Krohn, Sam Yagan, Chris Coyne and Christian Rudder. Match has previously acquired dating site People Media for $80M and most recently Singlesnet. Yagan will continue to operate OkCupid. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Parship Acquires 12like

OPW - Jan 12 - On 1st January 2011, PARSHIP took over the entire operations of 12like GmbH, Germany. 12like.com is a specialist in social matchmaking via members’ extended social networks – for instance on Facebook.

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Lavalife Sold To First Media Group

OPW - Dec 3 - [Breaking news, you heard it first on OPW]. Lavalife was sold on November 30th to First Media Group. The group also operates Quest Chat lines and QuestPersonals.com, a competitor to Lavalife's telemedia and online business. Ron Duke, the CEO & CFO has left, and Peter Housley, the President and COO of First Media Group has resumed his role as CEO of Lavalife. He was CEO in 2003 and was the original brand architect. No numbers have been released. 

eLove Acquires Los Angeles Matchmaker

PRESS RELEASE - Sep 30 - eLove, the matchmaking company, has acquired Cupid’s Coach. The addition of Cupid Coach’s two locations in LA and Westlake Village brings eLove’s total number of matchmaking offices to 50 nationwide. As the principal of Cupid’s Coach, Julie Ferman has been in the matchmaking business for more than 20 years. The partnership with eLove makes sense for us on many levels,” said Ferman. “We are now the first dating company to offer our clients both traditional matchmaking through eLove’s existing model and mutual selection matchmaking, using detailed personal resumes and professional photos. FULL ARTICLE @ ARTICLE BASE

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EasyDate Has Tied The Knot With Cupid

GUARDIAN.CO.UK - Sep 22 - EasyDate acquires North American rival cupid.com in a deal worth £4.4m. EasyDate already operates cupid.com outside the US and will now take charge of its US and Canada operations – reversing a trend that has seen US sites such as eHarmony eye up the UK for acquisitions. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

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Easydate Takes Over Two Dating Sites

IB TIMES UK - Sep 1 - Easydate has acquired PlanetSappho.com for £200,000 and Spanish-based dating site Granamor.com for £25,000 to boost its international growth and expand its niche portfolio. Easydate said it had entered into an agreement with dating website Flirt.com to license the domain for an initial period of six months. Easydate will run the dating service across English speaking markets with an option to acquire the domain based on the performance over this period. Easydate has also entered into partnerships with Associated Newspaper's 'Metro' newspaper and Cosmopolitan and Men's Health magazines to promote two individual dating events in London scheduled over the next month. FULL ARTICLE @ IB TIMES UK

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CatholicMatch.com Acquires TraditionalSingleCatholics.com

PR NEWSWIRE - July 1 - CatholicMatch.com, the provider of online dating for Catholics, has acquired the assets of TraditionalSingleCatholics.com. The integration of the niche site is effective today. TraditionalSingleCatholics.com was launched four and a half years ago. CatholicMatch acquired CatholicDaters.com in 2007 and SingleCatholics.com in 2008. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

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Dating.com Sells For $1.75M

TECH CRUNCH - May 13 - Someone has purchased the domain Dating.com for $1,750,000 at the DOMAINFest auction. Today’s auction racked up $2.4M in sales. Dating.com was sold by domain firm Oversee.net, via its SnapNames unit. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH