Techcrunch: Adultfriendfinder sold for almost 1 billion dollars

[RawAlex]

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/17...for-1-billion/

[EmporerEJ]

I can see it being valuable, But I'd like to see the check.

BTW: I just raised our "for sale" price.

[Greg B]

That's like $980 million too much.

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by Greg B

That's like $980 million too much.

I want to meet these investors that:

A: Are willing to invest REAL money in adult companies
B: Invest in companies without hard assets as opposed to companies WITH hard assets...
C: Want to invest without throwing out the the owner and screwing up the company.

Line them up....right here.

[Forest]

before gonzo gets in and says it

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE LARSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Forest

before gonzo gets in and says it

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE LARSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Kind of makes sense now doesnt it?

[Hell Puppy]

I dont question that they were sold, or even who they were perhaps sold to. That all makes sense if you look at the pieces.

Now if the deal was for a billion, I cant see that being a cash deal. That type of cash requires public funds, usually stock, and you cant keep that on the down low for long.

Then again, there's a Hoffa in charge of the Teamsters again, wonder what the pension fund is investing in these days?

[Toby]

The latest rumor is that the buyer is Penthouse and the sale figure is closer to $500 milllion.

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by Toby

The latest rumor is that the buyer is Penthouse and the sale figure is closer to $500 milllion.

More believable...

I do hear that the new ownership behind Penthouse has access to some creative financing options....

[RawAlex]

While I wouldn't want to claim anyone would have worked to artificially inflate the value of property, this all would make the Zango and torrent marketing campaigns make much more sense. Keeping the main properties in the alexa top 100 and top 1000 respectively is certainly a way to add or retain value.

The bigger question in the end would be what this means for their affiliate program. I cannot picture a new player coming in and wanting to keep paying very high payouts per signup, as it is no longer justified to just keep the traffic flowing. They need to extract all the net income they can from the properties, which is likely best achieved by collected the monthly fees from the existing users and attempting to internally upsell them, rather than paying outsiders for traffic. Certainly cutting the costs of traffic in half (going, say, to a $50 payout instead of a $100 or higher) would have a beneficial effect on the bottom line, at least in the short run.

It all depends who took it. It also depends if they decide to seperate out or split off the "sex" parts of the business (such as live chat cams) and run that independantly or sell it to a third party.

Lars may finally be allowed to come out of his hideout and explain himself!

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Lars may finally be allowed to come out of his hideout and explain himself!

A Rogue Affiliate tells me that there was a memo circulated giving an effective gag order from the top down. Im certain that the staff was told not to be discussion the dirty Zango dealings.

Im pretty sure before this rumor was being circulated that no one there for the most part had even known they had been sold.

Business as usual - is my speculation.

One thing is for sure. If the rumor is true...and I believe it is more than a rumor ... then Penthouse cashed out every asset and angle they had availible to seal the deal. Only a publically traded company could have scored a deal this size. The economics of it do not make sense otherwise.

Ponder this... all of these "small" buys of companies consolidating... Im certain they put in play deals of this size that you dont hear about.

Of course you wont read about this elsewhere until later.

[Rcourt64]

They dropped the necro program, So it ain't worth shit anymore

[Hell Puppy]

Pumping up numbers for a sale can make sense. Doing so in a manner that draws a ton of negative press does not, unless you have a buyer who does not have to care what public perception is.

As for coming in and doing wholesale changes, if what I think has happened is really the case, the m.o. would be exactly the opposite. If you buy something that is working, you leave it the hell alone for the most part.

You might seek some efficiencies in management (RIF). You might also eliminate any really over the top expensive perks. But day to day for the front line troops should be unimpacted, and you want it business as usual especially for customers, suppliers, etc.

Why would you lower affiliate payments? This isn't a mainstream startup operating at a loss just waiting for that big buy out or IPO. They're making a profit, a tidy profit. How do you do that with those insane payouts? Well, you either have hellacious retention, or you shave your ass off. Either way, the model is working, why fuck with it?

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Forest

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE LARSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Lars is denying that AFF has been sold, so I say fuck Lars he doesn't want to be free.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Toby

Lars is denying that AFF has been sold, so I say fuck Lars he doesn't want to be free.

My guess is Lars doesnt know.

Becky says that ARS hasnt been sold either.

[Hammer]

It's a publicity stunt.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Hammer

It's a publicity stunt.

Ill take that bet!

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by gonzo

Ill take that bet!

OK. I'll bet you $1billion.

[miz_wright]

Conru says no also so my guess is this is still a no-go.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by LizAEBN

Conru says no also so my guess is this is still a no-go.

Yeah they also said they didnt use Zango either.

[RawAlex]

They didn't use Zango and they didn't pre-pay torrent sites for traffic.

Why do you think there is all this buildup of useless (but countable) traffic? It certainly helps to bump up the value of the properties.