EasyDate flirts with acquisition growth

Easydate, the Edinburgh-based online dating firm, yesterday added another website to its portfolio with the acquisition of American domain flirt.com.

The company, which earlier this week announced plans to change its name to Cupid following a spat with EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is paying US company Belamo some 800,000 for the site.

Flirt.com has been operated by EasyDate under a licence agreement from Belamo since August and has since seen revenues grow from zero to 250,000 per month.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Commenting on the acquisition, Bill Dobbie, EasyDate's chief executive, said: "Flirt.com has performed exceptionally well since we started operating the site in the summer.

"Given this strong performance over a fairly short time period, we felt that acquiring total ownership of the domain was an important step that would contribute towards EasyDate's continued growth."

He added: "This acquisition secures ownership of a strong domain and dating site which sits alongside Cupid.com and Benaughty.com as one of our fastest growing dating sites."

EasyDate floated on Aim in June, becoming the UK's first listed match-making company. Its shares have risen more than 80 per cent since and last night closed unchanged on the day at 109.5p. Last month the firm revealed that revenues in the first nine months of 2010 had grown at more than 30 per cent per quarter.

Earlier this year, Sir Stelios accused EasyDate of taking advantage of the Easy brand "to obtain an undeserved commercial advantage" and vowed to take further action to protect the Easy name. EasyDate said it was changing its name for a "combination of reasons", including the issue with EasyGroup.