The IAC and HowAboutWe deal has gone through, the media conglomerate buying HowAboutWe’s dating and media properties.
News of an acquisition leaked two weeks ago, as HowAboutWe staff were told whether they would keep their jobs following the deal.
And the deal has now been completed, confirmed by Match Group CEO Sam Yagan and with comments from HowAboutWe co-founder Aaron Schildkrout, although neither have put out an official statement.
The exact figure of the deal has not yet been disclosed.
The deal includes their media property, HowAboutWe Media, which was launched earlier in the year, and was made up of four media titles which included a newly acquired Nerve.com.
Co-founder Brian Schechter said in January that a media brand could be “the way to beat IAC”, who he said “own” the dating industry.
They now own an even greater slice, taking HowAboutWe’s singles dating service, although This Life Inc., the parent company of HowAboutWe, will hold on to their Couples service, which they launched in 2013.
Aaron Schildkrout, co-founder of HowAboutWe, and now chief executive of This Life, Inc., said:
“We spent the last five years building and scaling HowAboutWe; our unique ‘offline dating’ experience has been used by millions of people and has helped many, many people fall in love.
“Our new partnership with IAC will help us bring this dating experience to an even larger number of people than ever before.”
Some of HowAboutWe’s staff will be joining IAC.
HowAboutWe has raised $23m from investors including RRE Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Founder Collective.
Match Group – the dating side of IAC’s portfolio – has a 28% market share of the dating industry, according to IBISWorld.
And now IAC, run by billionaire Barry Diller, can add HowAboutWe to their list of dating brands, which already includes Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder.