eharmony Acquired by Parship Umbrella

29th October 2018 Scott Harvey

PARSHIP ELITE Group (PEG) has today announced the acquisition of eharmony. PEG will take 100% ownership of the brand for an undisclosed amount.

PEG is the umbrella for Parship and ElitePartner, international dating brands with a strong presence in Germany. The group employs 230 people between its Hamburg HQ and Amsterdam office.

PEG is owned by NuCom Group (NCG). NCG in turn is a majority-owned subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, Germany’s biggest TV network. ProSiebenSat.1 is listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

ProSiebenSat.1 has sought to diversify its portfolio this year, as many of its core offerings are under threat from Netflix and other streaming services.

Grant Langston, CEO of eharmony, will continue running the business following the deal. He said in a press release: “eharmony is thrilled to be partnering with NuCom and the PARSHIP ELITE Group. By bringing together our well-known, like-minded companies, we have the resources and shared knowledge to compete and achieve growth together in the online matchmaking market with a laser focus on creating long-lasting, meaningful relationships.”

Tim Schiffers, CEO of PARSHIP ELITE Group, added: “eharmony is the inventor of scientifically based matchmaking. They have supported millions of singles in finding the right partner for a happy relationship. Parship and ElitePartner follow the same successful approach. We are extremely happy to in the future combine this matchmaking competence under one roof. We are very much looking forward to working together with Grant and his team.”

Dr. Jan Kemper, Group CFO and Executive Board Member Commerce of ProSiebenSat.1, says: “We are really excited to bring these two brands together. This deal will immediately create a world leading online matchmaking company with global operations. eharmony is a brand icon and the combined entity offers attractive growth as well as substantial synergy potential. Following our partnership with General Atlantic earlier this year, we are happy to announce our first core vertical within our NCG portfolio.”

Claas van Delden, Co-CEO of NuCom Group, notes: “PEG is among our most successful portfolio companies also because of the successful migration of ElitePartner onto the Parship platform. With eharmony, we can repeat this success on a global scale by ensuring a world class customer experience while securing the scale benefits of a unified tech stack.”

Representatives from Parship will reportedly be joining the eharmony board. The acquired brand expects to welcome almost 3 million new users this year.