Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp
announced Thursday that it would sell the European operation of its online dating unit Match.com to French rival Meetic.
In return, IAC will receive a 27% stake in Meetic and a €5 million ($6.3 million) note. IAC said that Match Europe contributes about 13% of the dating unit's consolidated operating income before amortization. Match Europe operates in 15 countries, IAC said.
Meetic has established a leading presence Europe and has also established a beachhead in
China.
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Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay more or less shrugged off the news.
"This
does not change our valuation of the company, because it appears IAC is
getting almost exactly as much value as it is giving," he wrote.
Match.com is the No. 2 player in the U.S. online dating market
while Meetic is Europe's largest company in this space.
"We see
the swap of Match.com's European assets for a 27% stake in Meetic as an acknowledgment by both sides that entering each other's primary
markets as the number 2 player is probably value destructive," Lindsay
wrote.
- Olaf de Senerpont Domis
