Spark Networks up for Sale

The New York Times is reporting that Spark Networks is up for sale. Spark Networks owns a large number of dating services (probably close to 20) with their flagship dating sites being AmericanSingles.com, BBWPersonalsPlus.com, and JDate (in order of size). According to comScore Media, the Spark Networks of dating sites are the 4th largest with 2.45 million visitors in November, 2007. Yahoo! Personals had the most visitors on the metrix with 4.23 million people for that month. This comparison is slightly unfair to other dating services since, the Spark Network is made up of a group of different dating sites. Still AmericanSingles.com did have 1.20 million visitors for November which is still a very large number of people and sales.

With shares (LOV) closing at $4.90 yesterday this gives the company a value of $131.4 million. Some Analysts predict that it may go for as high as $185 million, especially since the share price has risen close to 20% in the last few weeks. Spark Networks are in talks with companies that own related sites like MySpace, Match.com, eHarmony and Yahoo! Personals too see if interest in a sale can be generated.

Recently there was another dating network sold for the tune of $300 million, see the story here.