Group therapy in a blog.
Got a Spare $185 Million? Buy JDate (and Other Properties)
This just in via the NY Times (from a loyal reader):
The parent company of the popular Jewish online dating site JDate has put itself up for sale, people close to the auction said Thursday, and is already in talks with several prominent media companies.
The owner of JDate.com, Spark Networks, which owns dozens of online personal sites aimed at religious, ethnic and other special interests, is in early talks with suitors that include Yahoo; eHarmony; IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Barry Diller company that owns Match.com; and MySpace, which is part of the News Corporation, these people said.
Shares of Spark, which trades under the ticker LOV, have jumped more than 20 percent in recent weeks. Its shares closed yesterday at $4.90, giving the company a market value of $131.4 million. Analysts suggested that a suitor might pay as much as $185 million for the company.
Spark also owns AmericanSingles, BlackSingles, ChristianMingle and other sites, so your $185 million would purchase a portfolio of sites and not just the “beloved JDate.”
If you bought JDate or any other online dating site, what would you change?
If I bought the Sparks network, and $185 million was nothing to me, I’d keep AmericanSingles, BlackSingles, ChristianMingle, and Big beautiful Singles alive, while shutting down Jdate purely out of spite.
If I bought Sparks, I would make sure my growth is bigger than a mere 5%. With all the publicity you’d think they would have a higher growth rate.
if i bought jdate, id hire some computer programming geeks to bring that horribly constructed site into the year 2008 and not 1992. the members i dont have such a problem with but the mechanics of the site suck balls.
Yup, hate the players, hate the game. Gahhhhh. Supposedly (don’t know if this is true) Bill Cosby bought the rights to the Little Rascals shorts because he hated the way blacks were portrayed and didn’t want that to be seen today. I’d like to do the same with Jdate and the Jhate it seems to perpetuate. Let’s start with a clean slate, like arranged marriages or something…
Geez, these guys really ought to have a license to print money, or just about what with the rates they charge. But an update of the site & it’s business plan is probably sorely needed. It needs to seem much less grim & drudgery and less ‘gamed upon’ for the average users. I’d do a massive survey to see what the users were experiencing, and what their suggestions were. It’s a good idea that’s just rarely carried out all that well. But ‘all the hate’ has roots that of course pre-date J-date. By only a few millennium or so. I think the market’s been under cut a bit by the proliferation of dating sites, but this is why it must be low cost and low hassle. But the central premise does remain a valuable one. I’m not certain if it’s worth 185M, but I think they can get out with a handy pay out that will make them happy no doubt. But as an income generating ongoing concern, it’s still got some ‘Spark’ left in it for someone who really knows how to work & promote this type of business.
Cheers & Good Luck, ‘VJ’
there seems to be a lot of hostility towards JDate. this doesn’t affect me, because i don’t use the site. but if i were to purchase it, i’d give it a major overhaul in the form of a more open-minded environment for those who don’t “fit the mold” (gays and lesbians, those willing to convert or are already in the process of converting) and i’d make a rule that members have to be more descriptive in their profiles or they will be deleted from the site. it’s great that everyone wants to meet a “nice Jewish boy or girl.” but that’s a bit too generic. besides, being more descriptive saves you less hassle if you get stuck with someone who might be a serial killer or a Woody Allen clone.
I love that those are your two worst-case scenarios: serial killer or Woody Allen clone.
To get rid of all the goyim on there, I’ld change the intro questions into Yiddish
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