Dating site owners continue to get out of the market while the getting is good. A few more consolidations and it’s going to be a handful of mega-sites and a thousand niches struggling to survive.
In today’s news, it looks like Vertrue has found a buyer, although shareholders are not happy about the price. According to the New York Post:
Internet marketing company Vertrue, operator of the matchmaking site Lavalife, moved to take itself off the market yesterday via an $800 million leveraged buyout led by CEO Gary Johnson and three private equity shops.
The buyout group, which includes J.P. Morgan’s private equity arm, Oak Investment Partners and Rho Ventures, has agreed to pay $48.50 a share for Norwalk, Conn.-based Vertrue.
CEO Johnson stands to make more than $30 million on the deal.
Besides owning Lavalife, Vertrue sells a variety of buyers-club membership programs across the U.S. and Canada, and has been accused of various deceptive marketing practices.
Lavalife is one of the few running on a credit-based system, where members pay to contact other members on a case-by-case basic.
I was looking at Lavalife and checked out Lavalife Magazine. Looks like they have “borrowed” my ProfileDoctor brand name for themselves. I’m in a great mood today, all I’ll say is that Lavalife marketing are not the most original bunch.