Having closed the acquisition of if(we), MeetMe has rebranded to The Meet Group.
The Meet Group will act as the parent company of MeetMe, Skout, Tagged and Hi5.
It will also be the vehicle with which the company will pursue future acquisitions.
The move cements the Pennsylvania-based dating company’s position as a market leader, and rival to The Match Group.
Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, said: “We are excited to close the acquisition of if(we) and welcome our new team members and brands to The Meet Group. Our growing portfolio unites all of our brands with a singular purpose: to meet the universal need for human connection.
“We are no longer MeetMe, Inc. running a single app, but a global portfolio of mobile meeting apps that spans ten million monthly active users. As The Meet Group continues to add brands to its global portfolio that can leverage our cutting-edge technology for bringing the right people together and meeting their need for connection, we believe we will build a solid foundation for long-term growth and shareholder value creation.”
MeetMe said it expects the acquisition of if(we) to contribute $9m of adjusted EBITDA in the first 12 months post-close, and give the company a path for generating $150m in annualised revenue and $50m of adjusted EBITDA.
The acquisition of the Silicon Valley social dating company for $60m was announced in March, seeing MeetMe take ownership of both Tagged and Hi5, which have a combined user base of over 300m and users in over 100 countries.
Last year, the San Francisco company posted annual revenues of $44m, pushed by a 56% mobile revenue growth and a 93% mobile ad revenue hike.
As of Q4 2016, if(we) had 5.4m total monthly active users, and was adding 18,000 new registered mobile users every day.
The acquisition came after MeetMe also bought Skout in 2016 for $55m.
The integration between the two companies began recently, members of both Skout and MeetMe able to browse the combined user bases.
Speaking about his ambitions for the newly-formed The Meet Group, Cook said: “The Meet Group is larger than dating. Our users come to meet, chat, and hang out. Our communication model is open, and we believe our revenue model is optimized to retain users longer, not chase them away with paywalls.
“We believe the new umbrella brand will better position the company to consolidate the fragmented mobile meeting industry into an efficiently run portfolio.”
With the closing of the if(we) acquisition, The Meet Group has granted options to purchase an aggregate of up to 75,000 shares of its common stock, and restricted stock awards representing an aggregate of 717,500 shares of common stock, to 83 former if(we) employees as an “inducement material to their employment”.
Last week, MeetMe announced it was following the lead of Momo, introducing a live video feature to its mobile service.
Read more about it here.