Online Dating Industry Consulting & Commentary
The financial section shows all posts tagged as "finance"
The following letter was sent to the board of Spark Networks Inc. (NYSE Amex:LOV) March 8, 2010 in opposition to Great Hill Partners’ bid to acquire the company.
Dear Board Members,
Osmium Partners beneficially owns 6.1% of Spark Networks common stock. We are outraged and deeply disappointed to see that Great Hill Partners (GHP) offered a 5% [...]
{ 3 comments }
Today’s guest post is by Ross Felix. Ross has been paying close attention to Spark Networks for quite some time and is well-versed in the challenges it faces today.
Spark Networks reported their year-end results on Thursday March 4th. Much of their results came in as expected with a few big surprises. All in all, it [...]
{ 6 comments }
A few weeks ago I got a chance to talk to Ian Swanson, founder of Sometrics. Ian was previously at Userplane, building social applications for sites like MySpace. Sometrics is focused on monetizeing the social web, providing solutions to maximize revenue from virtual currency. Initially was a banner ad manager which did optimization based on [...]
{ 0 comments }
The contents of this post are based on Spark Networks’ 10K from 2008 and their 10Q from the third quarter of 2009. Input was received from several people who have tracked Spark Networks for many years, with special help from Ross Felix.
Great Hill Partners, a long time investor in Spark Networks (Jdate’s parent company)has put [...]
{ 0 comments }
Several weeks ago I heard from a reliable source that IAC Has Acquired Another Top Dating Site. I’ve known who it was all along, and decided to do the right thing and not mention the name of the company being acquired on this blog. I just heard from Match’s PR team and the public announcement [...]
{ 5 comments }
Look at this ComScore data on Zoosk vs. Match and Singlesnet. Of course we don’t know what is driving this gargantuan traffic spike, but Zoosk raised $30 million, and if they poured some of that into a marketing campaign (Zoosk ads are everywhere), that could account for some or all of the spike.
I treat all [...]
{ 7 comments }
Newsflash: IAC has acquired a major dating site. When you find out which site it is you’re going to be surprised. Of all the dating sites acquisitions Match has been looking at, this is the last one I would have figured them to acquire. I’m going to have a lot to say about this deal, [...]
{ 24 comments }
Mark Brooks over at Online Personals watch says that online dating sites “could raise their prices without losing customers.” I almost choked on my drink reading that. With the rise in free an freemium-based dating sites, I think that subscription-based sites should, if anything, reduce their pricing.
Lower prices will draw more subscribers, more subscribers = [...]
{ 1 comment }
After a long-awaited public offering, FriendFinder has cancelled their IPO. According to TechCrunch, flat sales and lackluster investor are to blame. The high-profile network of dating and adult sites planned to use the IPO to pay off the staggering debt, currently $471 million.
This is a big setback for FriendFinder. What can they possibly do now? [...]
{ 0 comments }
Not satisfied with European market domination, Match and Meetic have established a joint venture in Latin America.
Match.com and Meetic will each own 50 percent of the joint venture’s equity, and Match.com will control the new entity’s operations. Match.com will pay Meetic $3 million in cash at the closing, which is expected by March 15, 2010. [...]
{ 1 comment }
