IAC Just Isn’t That Into Match.com Europe; Sells To French Rival; New CEO
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Turns out IAC (NSDQ: IACI) isn’t ready for commitment. The New York-based Ask.com operator is selling its dating site Match.com‘s European business to French rival Meetic. Still, it’s a sweet kind of pre-nup to be formed in the week after Valentine’s Day - IAC is getting €5 million ($6.34 million) and a 27 percent stake of the buyer; Meetic is getting one of the most powerful brand names in online dating.
SEE ALSO: IAC Sells ReserveAmerica To Active Network In Stock Swap
At the same time, Match.com is getting a new CEO - IAC EVP and general counsel Greg Blatt, who took oversight of the site in October, succeeds Thomas Enraght-Moony, who is leaving Match.com with the Meetic sale after two years in charge. Blatt will remain an IAC EVP but will no longer be general counsel.
Match.com operates in 15 European countries, which together comprise 13 percent of Match.com’s overall income. The pair reckon they can eventually save €15 million ($19 million) a year in synergies. Meetic posted €113.8 million ($100.9 million) revenue in 2007. After IAC CEO Barry Diller in November hinted at off-loading “emerging” businesses - which includes TheDailyBeast and CollegeHumor - the company sold ReserveAmerica to The Active Network in a stock swap, comedy news site 236.com to Huffington Post and its stake in a Japanese shopping channel to Sumitomo.
Diller, in today’s release, said giving Match.com to Meetic “represents a great opportunity to unite two established leaders in the field to serve a growing population of online daters in Europe”.
Meetic CEO and founder Marc Simoncini, in the release, said the pair will “complement” each other. But that language is a far cry from a couple of years back, when he likened their rivalry to “war” and criticised Match.com: “It’s the French vision against the Texan vision ... They promise you to be married in six months, which for a French guy or a Spanish guy or an Italian is crazy” (via BBC News). Simoncini has been steadily building Meetic’s UK presence - in 2007, Meetic bought DatingDirect.
@robertandrews
Feb 19, 2009 1:48 PM ET
Posted In: Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, Social Media, Companies, IAC, match.com, meetic
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