Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Heavy Layoffs At PlanetOut

CNET NEWS -- Jan 14 -- A third of the staff were laid off this week at PlanetOut. On January 8, PlanetOut issued a press release announcing that it was merging with its competitors Here Networks and Regent Entertainment Media, the publishers of LGBT magazines The Advocate, Out, and HIVPlus. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

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Sun Sets On PlanetOut

 SF BUSINESS TIMES -- Jan 9 -- Gay and lesbian media company PlanetOut Inc will merge with Here Networks and Regent Entertainment Media, two related businesses that have bought parts of PlanetOut in the past few years. Here Media and Regent will pay $4.7m in cash into the new company as part of the deal. They'll own, through special preferred shares, 80% of the business after the merger. FULL ARTICLE @ SF BUSINESS TIMES

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Gay.com Has Been Offline More Than It's Been Online

QUEERTY -- Oct 15 -- PlanetOut's Gay.com spent untold sums of cash revamping its infrastructure in the past few months. Except ever since the gay hub debuted the new version of its site at the beginning of the month, Gay.com has been plagued by downtime. By our rough science, it's been offline more than it's been online. Gay.com sent an apology letter to members stating they were adjusting their hardware configurations and software code and fixing the bugs that have resulted in unplanned system outages. FULL ARTICLE @ QUEERTY

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PlanetOut Partners With Expedia

SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES -- Apr 3 -- PlanetOut, a media company running web sites and magazines aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers, has put Expedia in charge of travel booking on its web sites. In the past, a good chunk of PlanetOut's revenue came from travel bookings, although former CEO Lowell Selvin said in late 2004 that two-thirds of the company's money came from matchmaking and dating services and advertising. But the company's online segment has been contributing less to its revenue for each of the last three years. In 2005 it accounted for 87%, in 2006 54%, and in 2007 51%. In February, PlanetOut reported a $51.2m loss for 2007. FULL ARTICLE @ SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES

PlanetOut Explores Possible Sale Of Company

REUTERS -- Jan 14 --  PlanetOut, which serves the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, is evaluating strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company. PlanetOut, which has been reporting a loss for the last seven quarters, said it will no longer provide quarterly or annual earnings outlook and will not hold quarterly earnings calls. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

Gay.com Parent Company Sells Travel Business

PINKNEWS.CO.UK -- Oct 15 -- PlanetOut – parent company of The Advocate, Out magazine, Gay.com, and PlanetOut.com – has announced plans to sell its travel business RSVP Vacations to Atlantis Events. PlanetOut, which recently was rescued from bankruptcy by investors such as Bill Gates, is attempting to reverse declining advertising revenues. FULL ARTICLE @ PINKNEWS.CO.UK

Mark Brooks: Gay.com is down 5.6% over last year. Manhunt.net is up 38%. Free site, Adam4Adam is also up 38%. (See Compete graph). I tested Manhunt's customer service out after their CEO, Adam Segel, mentioned to me at the Shanghai Social Networking Conference that Manhunt.net has 20 minute email response times. Surely not?! But, it's true! And they picked up their phone line on the 3rd ring when I tried the customer service line. What's your site's email response time?

PlanetOut Sells Majority Stake For $26.2 Million

PAID CONTENT.ORG -- July 2 -- PlanetOut which operates websites, magazines and travel services for the gay and lesbian community just sold 56% of it's company for $26.2 million. Buyers include Cascade Investment (of which Bill Gates is an investor) as well as SF Capital Partners, PAR Investment Partners and Allen & Co. PlanetOut has had difficulty since making numerous acquisitions following its IPO in October 2004. FULL ARTICLE @ PAID CONTENT.ORG

As Gay Media Brings In Business, PlanetOut Struggles

DOW JONES NEWSWIRE -- June 28 -- Though corporate interest in the gay dollar may be on the rise, Planet Out struggles. Their stock price is down from the IPO price of $9 (Oct. 2004) to $1.30 today. The company faces stiff competition from other media outlets, and its online business and recent acquisitions, such as RSVP Vacations, aren't performing as expected. The company is now considering strategic options, says CEO Karen Magee. She won't say whether the company is for sale, but said it may sell its adult entertainment business. PlanetOut faces stiff competition in the gay media market. Although the company doesn't own a TV network, Viacom Logo network, NBC's Bravo and Here! Networks all have Web operations. Various blogs and lifestyle sites have also popped up, like AfterEllen.com and AfterElton.com, newcomer GLEE and Queerty, social-networking sites Manhunt.net, Adam4Adam.com and OurChart.com.

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Gay.com Not For Sale

OPW -- May 29 -- A little birdie told me...”Also, update regarding PlanetOut, Inc. and Gay.com. Their investment banker, Allen & Co., said that no part of PlanetOut's business is currently for sale. Allen & Co. is a prior investor in the business and has confidence in the current management (and is being paid a fee in the form of warrants to buy 750,000 shares at $1.69 a share). They are confident they can raise the $15 MM cash to continue the business through this year and that the value will be there in the long run. Good luck to them and the Red Sox.  If shares recover to $5, they'll hit a home run.” Take a look at PlanetOut stock now.  Up from a low of 86c on Tuesday May 22nd to $1.39 now. Someone made a killing already. - Mark Brooks

PlanetOut Hopes to Stave Off Bankruptcy

PAID CONTENT -- May 22 -- The owners of PlanetOut hope to raise $15 million+ in new equity or subordinated debt as it tries to dig out from $26.5 million in debt. The trouble began two years ago when PlanetOut went on a shopping spree, acquiring the RSVP Vacations cruise business and LPI Publications, publishers of Out, OutTraveler, and The Advocate, as well as several pornographic magazines under the Specialty Publications brand. Several senior executives have resigned. Some of the problems besetting the company may be due to the migration of gay people to sites such as MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ PAIDCONTENT.ORG

Mark Brooks: Advice to PlanetOut: Divest the magazines and travel companies and stick to your knitting, online content and memberships and advertising. PlanetOut has been too busy trying to fill cruise ships and sell magazine subscriptions to focus on the future. Manhunt.net (casual adult) and MyPartnerPerfect.com (about to be launched, serious dating) are biting at PlanetOut's heels.

PLanetOut Partners with Showtime Networks

PR NEWSWIRE -- Feb 16 -- PlanetOut will provide co-branded online personals for Showtime Networks' drama series "The L Word(R)".  PlanetOut Inc. is the leading global media and entertainment company exclusively serving the LGBT; Gay.com, PlanetOut.com, Kleptomaniac.com, OUT&ABOUT Travel, The Advocate, Out, The Out Traveler, HIVPlus, Alyson Publications, SpecPub, Triangle Marketing Services. PlanetOut is based in San Francisco with additional offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Buenos Aires.  RELEASE @ SYS-CON MEDIA

TrueDater Adds MySpace and eHarmony

BUSINESS WIRE -- Feb. 8, 2006--TrueDater added MySpace, eHarmony, HotorNot, PlanetOut, and BlackSingles.  Last year Truedater was featured on Wired.com, Time Magazine, Newsweek and NBC's The Today Show. It's free, anonymous and is supported by ads and sign-ups for dating sites. A majority of TrueDater members are women. The site encourages members to review those who are "TrueDaters" as well as those who exaggerate or mislead. Nearly half the reviews on the site are positive endorsements.

Mark Brooks: Greatboyfriends and Greatgirlfriends are alternative spins on this idea. 

PlanetOut Acquires 'Advocate' and 'Out' Magazines

MARKETING VOX -- Nov 11 -- The nation's two largest gay-oriented media companies will combine when PlanetOut acquires LPI Media for $24 million in cash.  LPI publishes the Advocate and Out magazines and two others with a combined circulation of 8.2 million.  The deal will offer advertisers "the massive online reach that PlanetOut can deliver with the amazing content and editorial that LPI Media can deliver," said Lowell Selvin, PlanetOut's CEO.  RELEASE @ MARKETING VOX

Mark Brooks: Online dating sites are looking for ways to keep user interest. Good quality content is a good strategy.  It's worked well for Planetout and Community Connect.  Friendfinder utilizes user submitted content for its magazines.  Users then bubble up the best content by voting for it.

PlanetOut Initiated with "Buy" Rating

NEWRATINGS -- May 19 -- A Hambrecht analyst initiated coverage of PlanetOut with a "buy" rating. The 12-month target price is set to $11. PlanetOut has +3.3 million members and is a leader in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender centric market. Revenues and EPS are likely to increase by 75% and 285%, respectively, over the next couple of years, WR Hambrecht adds.  FULL ARTICLE @ NEWRATINGS

Mark Brooks: PlanetOut went public in October 2004 raising $41.6 million.  The stock went from $10 to $14 and then dipped to $6 and is on the rise again.  Graph

PlanetOut On the Record

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Jan 23 -- Lowell Selvin, CEO of PlanetOut, the Web portal for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, with 3.3 million users, navigated PlanetOut through an IPO in October 2004, netting $41.6 million.  The funds will be focused primarily on products, features, technological investments and to expand internationally.  This is an under-served market -- $600 billion in buying power in the US alone. PlanetOut reaches 3.3 million out of roughly 15 million adult gays and lesbians in the US and 260 million adult gays and lesbians in Europe, Latin America, Asia and North America combined. We're just scratching the surface.  FULL ARTICLE @ SFGATE

PlanetOut IPO

THE DEAL--PlanetOut trading sharply higher in its first day as a public company. San Francisco-based, sold 4.65 million shares at $9, raised $41.9 million; rose 15.6% in its debut, closing at $10.40. PlanetOut is a product of the 2001 merger between PlanetOut Corp. and Gay.com parent company OnlinePartners.com Inc. It serves 3.3 million members. THE DEAL

PlanetOut Postpones IPO

San Jose Mercury News / AP, Thurs 12th Aug -- PlanetOut postponed it's IPO due to unfavorable market conditions. "Given the current difficult market for IPO's, we feel the appropriate value of the company would not be realized," CEO Lowell Selvin said. The SF company hasn't withdrawn it's registration but will continue to evaluate the timing of a share sale.