The Match Group catches PlentyOfFish for $575M

Steven Loeb · July 14, 2015 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3ebf

The online dating site will join Match, Tinder, OkCupid and Meetic under the Match Group umbrella

(Updated with comment from PlentyOfFish)

I have a lot of friends who have met their spouses through an online dating site, but there are so many of them out there that I wonder how they chose one over the other. What's the difference between Zoosk and eHarmony and any of the others? Is there even one? I kind of suspect that they are all kind of the same thing. 

In fact, they sort of are. Some are very similar in that they have the same parent company, namely The Match Group. Now's it's added another well known online dating site to its coffers. In fact, one that's been around for more than a decade. 

PlentyOfFish, which has been bootstrapped since 2003, when it started, was just purchased by The Match Group for $575 million. The news was announced on Tuesday.  

Though it's not specified in the announcement, given that The Match Group is the global operator of a series of digital dating products, such as Match, Tinder, OkCupid and Meetic, it is likely that PlentyOfFish will continue to operate as an independent brand under that umbrella, much like those other services.

By becoming a part of the Match team, the company will have access to its global resources and reach.

"Today is a transformative day for PlentyOfFish. Having started the company out of my Vancouver apartment in 2003, PlentyOfFish has grown into something much bigger than I ever could have imagined," Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyOfFish, told VatorNews.

"Our goal here has always been to connect as many single people as possible, so joining forces with Match is a momentous milestone as we look to the future to create more connections, more dates and more relationships than ever before."

Meanwhile, for Match Group, it gets to expand its already long list of products in this space.

"As more people than ever use more dating apps than ever with more frequency than ever, PlentyOfFish's addition both brings new members into our family of products and deepens the lifetime relationship we have with our users across our portfolio," Sam Yagan, CEO of The Match Group, said in a statement.

"I look forward to working closely with Markus and extending the company's impressive growth trajectory."

Founded in 2003, the Vancouver-based PlentyOfFish has been bootstrapped since the beginning. The company now has over 90 million registered users, with over 55,000 signups every day, and 3.6 million people loggoing in daily. The company says that it creates 1 million relationships every year.

The Match Group is a subsidiary of IAC focused solely on dating products. It consistes of nearly 50 brands, which are translated into nearly 40 languages and available in more than 200 countries across five continents. More than 7 million people sign up for Match Group's products every month. 

The transaction is expected to close early in the fourth quarter and is subject to the receipt of the approval from the Minister of Industry pursuant to the Investment Canada Act. 

(Image source: twitter.com)

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