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. Meetic’s participation in this new entity is subject to put-and-call rights that can be triggered beginning in the fourth year, when Match could purchase Meetic’s stake at fair market value. An additional payment of $1.5 million could be triggered at that time.
Greg Blatt, CEO, Match.com:
By combining ParPerfeito’s strength in the Brazilian market with Match.com’s presence in the rest of Latin America, we believe we’re best positioned to drive that expansion and create an asset of meaningful value. We’re confident from our work together in Europe that further partnering with Meetic will be a productive experience.
Another day, another big deal for Match and Meetic, who seem quite comfortable with each other given their expanding online dating empire. Match has been looking for partners for a long time, and Meetic and People Media seem to fit the bill quite nicely. Muy bueno.
And what pray tell are eHarmony and Yahoo up to? Eharmony’s international expansion is nowhere near as advanced as Match/Meetic and Yahoo appears to be stagnant, if not faltering.
Something tells me we’ll be hearing more about Match in Asia as well. They have a couple of properties there but we haven’t heard a peep about them in a long time.
More at Boston.com.
