Meetic increases its European operations

The largest European dating conglomerate has become even larger: Meetic.com – which currently serves millions of customers in over 20 countries – is set to acquire Match.com’s entire European operations on a massive trade-off.

France-based Meetic will buy Match.com’s European base from IAC (InterActiveCorp), which held the entirety of Match.com’s European stock. IAC’s Chairman and CEO Barry Diller – known for his deal-making skills – negotiated an exchange in which he will hand over 100% of match.com Europe’s stock in exchange for approximately 27% of Meetic stock plus a 5 million Euro debt note. Mr. Diller commented on this trade-off: “The partnership represents a great opportunity to unite two established leaders in the field to serve a growing population of online daters in Europe. The acquisition will create significant synergies, and we believe Marc Simoncini and his team are ideally suited to realize those synergies over the coming years and drive significant shareholder value.”

Mr. Simoncini, founder and CEO of Meetic, also made very positive prognostics of the results of this new partnership: “Match.com is a well-established brand with an outstanding value proposition for consumers. Their European offerings complement Meetic’s existing operations, and should provide substantial profit growth opportunities through marketing and operating savings and increased revenue opportunities.” Besides Meetic – and now Match,- the Meetic Network includes Meetic Mobile, Meetic Affinity, Lexa, ParPerfeito, DatingDirect, Neu.de, Cleargay, Partner.de, and Lexamore. To this variety of sites, Meetic will now add Match.com’s European operations in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Thomas Enraght-Moony, departing CEO of Match.com, commented,

“This partnership creates tremendous value for both customers and shareholders and is a testament to the dedicated team that built Match.com in Europe. We look forward to the growth of the newly combined business in the years to come.”

Greg Blatt, former IAC Executive VP and general counsel, will succeed Mr. Enraght-Moony at the helm of IAC’s personals business, which include Chemistry.com and the newly launched DowntoEarth.com besides Match.com’s remaining international operations spanning 24 countries and 8 languages.

Match.com shares climbed $.57, or 3.9 percent, to $15.05 after the announcement that their European contingent was to be taken over by Meetic.

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