Markus Frind, founder of the dating website PlentyofFish Media Inc., is moving from matchmaker to dealmaker after selling his firm for $575 million to Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp. Plenty of Fish (POF) is a popular Vancouver-based online dating website. The Match Group, the New York-based company that owns Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder, says it has purchased Vancouver-based. Plenty of Fish sold to Match Group for $575 million in cash. Markus Frind, 36, is the founder and CEO of the Vancouver-based Plenty of Fish. Frind told Business Insider he started Plenty of Fish. Jan 07, 2020 The year started off with the bang at Toyosu Fish Market in Tokyo over the weekend, where the first bluefin tuna of 2020 sold for whopping $1.8 million at auction. Caught off the coast of Aomori. Jul 15, 2015 A Very Old Version of the PlentyOfFish Architecture that was Just Sold for $575 Million. Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 8:56AM. PlentyOfFish was acquired by the Match Group for $575 million in cash. And it all goes to Markus Frind. Here's the story of the acquisition.
YESTERDAY DATING WEBSITE Plenty of Fish was acquired by Match Group, a subsidiary of the Tinder parent IAC that recently announced plans for an IPO.
Plenty of Fish sold to Match Group for $575 million (€522 million) in cash and Markus Frind, 36, is the founder and CEO of the Vancouver-based company.
Frind said in 2003 he started the business “as a way to improve my resume”.
“At the time there was a new programming language called ASP.NET, and I don’t like reading books, so I just went and created the site in two weeks and then people started signing up, much to my surprise,” he said.
Plenty Of Fish Sold App
“And it blew up from there. It wasn’t like I had a plan to create a dating site. It was just a side project I created that got really big.”
No funding, complete control
Before founding Plenty of Fish, Frind had been a developer and he retained complete ownership of the company without a cent of venture capital funding. Plenty of Fish’s deal with Match will close by the end of the year.
“By the time I found out what VCs were, I was already making millions in profit and I didn’t see the need to raise money because I wouldn’t know what to do with it,” he said.
HAPPY CANADA DAY from the Fishbowl! #proudtobecanadian#mapleleaf#POFlife#maplesyrup#canuck How R U celebrating!? pic.twitter.com/xALuehU3ZC
— Plenty of Fish (@PlentyOfFish) July 1, 2015 Source: PlentyOfFish/TwitterFrind says Plenty of Fish, which has 90 million registered users and 3.6 million active daily users, was “immediately profitable.”
In 2008, Frind told The New York Times that his website’s net profits were about $10 million a year, and he only worked about 10 hours a week. Now, he says, he works a bit more than that.
“It’s funny, once you start adding people to the company, the amount of time you have to work goes up,” he said.
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Match Group CEO Sam Yagan said in a statement he’d had his eye on Plenty of Fish for over ten years.
“As more people than ever use more dating apps than ever with more frequency than ever, Plenty of Fish’s addition both brings new members into our family of products and deepens the lifetime relationship we have with our users across our portfolio,” he said.
Match Group CEO Sam Yagan Source: YouTube
So how does it feel to finally have the deal close, knowing you’re walking away with millions of dollars for your project?
Plenty Of Fish Sold Online
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Who Bought Plenty Of Fish
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The Match Group, the New York-based company that owns Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder, says it has purchased Vancouver-based dating website PlentyOfFish for US$575 million in cash.
In a statement on its website, Match Group CEO Sam Yagan says it was attracted to PlentyOfFish's consistent growth and it plans to integrate the Canadian company's mobile app into its existing family of digital and online dating services.
In March, PlentyOfFish surpassed 100 million users.
CEO and founder Markus Frind launched the company from his Vancouver apartment in 2003.
The Match Group says the deal is subject to approval from the federal industry minister and is expected to close early in the fourth quarter.