Online dating service and IAC property Match.com is getting into the highly-targeted subscription dating game with the acquisition of People Media, which it is taking off the hands of publicly traded PE firm American Capital and a host of other investors for $80 million in cash.
The deal includes the purchase of about 27 targeted dating sites with a combined 255,000 paying subscribers, including BlackPeopleMeet.com, BBPeopleMeet.com, LDSPlanet.com, SingleParentMeet.com and SeniorPeopleMeet.com.
People Media, founded in 2002, had $11.6 million of EBITDA in 2008 and quotes Jupiter Research as saying the combined revenues of the targeted dating service business are expected to reach $1.2 billion worldwide this year. Still according to the announcement, People Media, besides exclusively powering multiple AOL Personals communities, reaches nearly 4 million internet users each month. Match.com attracted about 5.8 million unique monthly users in May 09 according to comScore and reported $9.9 million in operating income before amortization last year.
Sounds like a good match.
And it’s not like Match.com’s parent company IAC/Interactive is lacking the cash for an acquisition of this size: after buying back 3 million shares for an average $15.15 apiece in the first quarter of the year, it ended the quarter with a whopping $2 billion in cash and securities with just $98.5 million in long-term debt.
People Media is expected to reach “$1.2 billion in worldwide revenues”? That can’t be right. Perhaps it’s an estimate for worldwide revenue for the entire online dating industry?
Ha I doubt they would make that big a jump! Rephrased to make it clearer, thx.
seems traffic are similar in graph. it is like acquiring closest competitor right?
That’s the industry revenue.. PPLM had 11.8 EBITDA in 08′ – no one would sell a company for 80m if they were doing 1.2b… try to read the black-print…
Kidlive is right! Think about it braniacs! If your esteemed conglomerants were doing 1.2 billion a year, would you sell your company for 80 mill? Please… Do ya READ th earticles ORRRRR? -Want the real juice – click the name storm troopers!
Agreed, the $1.2 billion number is wrong. Just do the math: $1.2 billion divided by 255,000 paying customers would be $4705 per customer per year.
Great acquisition.
On a side note…
BBpeoplemeet.com should be illegal. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
wow 80 million sure is good money. Congrats to People Media!
Is there a WhitePeopleMeet.com?
Kinda unintuitive, but yeah there is. It’s called “The Olive Garden.”
Depends on your definition of white – do you mean European ancestry, German, Irish-Catholic, Italian, British, WASPS, Mormons?
In the age of Facebook and social media how is the paid dating sites going to do?
How many chicks have you dated through facebook?
I do not answer to personal attacks. However, calling the half of world population ‘chick’ anonymously really shows your courage.
Myspace is a good place to meet under-age girls from what I hear from dateline.
Match.com are certainly pushing themselves hard, they are everywhere television, Banners (see to your right).
match is good website ‘_’
27 sites for one subject? this was a simple purchase of subscribers in an attempt to dominate a market. the domain names are worthless.
the man speaks truth.
note that nerve/onion/adultfriendfinder personals are about to launch a new fake rebrand called “FastCupid.” I wonder who’s eating their lunch, eh? The AdultFriendFinder umbrella looks like it’s springing some leaks, good riddance. If you can’t change the product, change the packaging.
Fastcupid has been around for years.
hey I got a new dating site that fcucking rocks. Domain name that is. Totally wicked
If these numbers are correct then IAC purchased this company for 7x cash flow and this is an awesome deal. I’m also betting that the real multiple for IAC, after combining the operations, is a lot lower, say 4 to 5x. So why is the price so good??? Usually the “best buyer” is willing to pay a premium as they will realize the most synergies. Is there a high turn over of subscribers? Are their revenues declining? PeopleMedia reaches 4m users/month and Match reaches 5.8m yet Match’s EBITA is $9 to PM’s $11.6m. While the deal makes total sense for IAC/Match.com, I’m betting there is more to this story as to why this deal is so favorable to IAC.
7 x Ebitda – Match is leveraged with inside knowledge having board members on AOL. The money isn’t ’sqaut’ to this deal on the buyer side. nothing in terms to IAC’s revenue. The sellers made off because they didn’t need to leave the space. The ultimate value is in the long term remarket of the data and the continued cornering/encroachment of market share for personals online. Logn term IAC got a way with murder.. PPLM got a way with BANK. This is th ebest valued per dolalr deal since MicroSoft bout 1.5 % of FB for 260Mill (for FB that is) –anywho – dudes and dudettes…more news when you click on my user name. Just a thought.
IAC probably got a good deal because American Capital, which owned PeopleMedia, is in need of cash. They’re technically in default with their creditors.
Good point. So much for Spark Networks being the acquisition target. Next acquisition for IAC, Yahoo Personals.
Let’s not forget what happend to the earlier Match acquistions like udate and kiss.com. Hopefully they keep the brands separate, expect a lot of cross-marketing between the properties, as most dating sties are turing into advertising webrings circa 1999.
I can’t help but feel they paid too much.