IAC's Match.com To Acquire Singlesnet

PR NEWSWIRE – Feb 25 – Match.com has signed an agreement to acquire Singlesnet. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Greg Blatt, CEO of Match.com said, “While Singlesnet’s traffic is currently in decline, we believe we can reverse that trend, increase the site’s profitability and improve the overall user experience. This is more of a value acquisition than a strategic one, and Singlesnet will predominantly be run as a standalone business. Nonetheless, the addition of the site’s considerable traffic to our existing aggregation of traffic in this single category should open new monetization opportunities for Match.com’s collective portfolio of domestic online dating brands.” 

Adrian Ong, who joined Match from Soulmates Technology, a company acquired by Match.com in 2002, will assume responsibility for Singlesnet. Mr Ong has held various leadership roles within Match.com's International business, primarily in the areas of product and technology, and most recently has led Match.com’s effort to transition its European business to Meetic in connection with its sale last year. Quinn Lipin , Singlesnet's founder, will continue to work for the company in an executive capacity. FULL PRESS RELEASE @ PR NEWSWIRE

Mark Brooks: Traffic is down from over 7 million uniques a month in January 2009 to 4.5 million a month in January 2010 according to Compete. Singlesnet has been rogue-ish in its marketing tactics in the past so its good its coming under Match.com's wing. They can polish the site up and make it less of an embarrassment to the experience that should be 'internet dating,' and then put it to bed.

Comments

[Datinginsider]

"They can polish the site up and make it less of an embarrassment to the experience that should be 'internet dating,' and then put it to bed."

Strong words, Mark ;-) How is the SN experience different from other dating sites? Buy a lot of cheap traffic via social networks and get affiliates all hot and bothered, work the SEO through multiple interstitial domains, send them to a site with little value and minimal features, sign up hundreds of paying users each day, manage the churn rate and watch the coins pile up while amassing a large pile of billing complaints.

Singlesnet needs a lot more than polishing up. That would be a great project to work on. Maybe Match's current landing page optimization firm can fix it when they are done with Match and Chemistry and People Media.

We'll see how SN traffic converts on Match, if that's even what they intend to do with the site.

[Fernando Ardenghi]

The Worldwide 2009 annual revenue for eHarmony was estimated in USD 250 millions [Canada, U.S.A., U.K. and Australia]
If you consider 10% of that revenue by ads, it is only USD 225 millions by subscriptions
At a USD 40 (Monthly Average Revenue per Subscriber: MARS)

USD 225 millions / USD 480 (Annual Average Revenue per Subscriber) == 468,750 paid Subscribers

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Meetic (FR0004063097 - MEET), the leader in Europe declared
a Worldwide 2009 annual revenue of 164.5 millions of Euros.
The Meetic Group had 920,286 paid subscribers at 31st December 2009

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IAC (Nasdaq: IACI)

IAC's Personals [Match, Chemistry, NetClubEncuentro, Udate, PeopleMedia communities] declared a Worldwide 2009 annual revenue of USD 342.60 millions
and
1,377,000 paid subscribers at 31st December 2009

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IAC bought PeopleMedia for USD 80 millions in cash last July 2009, with 255,000 paid subscribers.
The IAC had paid USD 313.73 per subscriber.
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My personal estimation is:

SinglesNet Worldwide 2009 annual revenue of USD 80 millions (20 by ads from Google and 60 from subscribers) 420,000 paid subscribers * 12 months * USD 12 Monthly Average Revenue per Subscriber.

SinglesNet Worldwide 2010 projected annual revenue of USD 51 millions (15 by ads from Google and 36 from subscribers) 250.000 paid subscribers * 12 months * USD 12 Monthly Average Revenue per Subscriber.

If the IAC bought SinglesNet for USD 50 millions, and if it has only a database of 250.000 paid subscribers, the IAC had paid USD 200 per subscriber, but as SinglesNet is a low quality online dating site, I seriously doubt the IAC could recover the invested money.

Regards,

Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
[email protected]

[Jeff W]

$50? I am highly suspect that they even paid $10M - this was a highly distressed asset.

[Sex dates personals]

Almost halved the traffic in one year, creepy downgrade..