Match.com tipped to buy rival's assets

by AMANDA NOTTAGE, Revolution UK 25-Sep-02

Match.com is being tipped to obtain the domain names of rival dating and community site woowho in a deal being negotiated between the companies.

The US dating site is close to finalising the deal, which will see Match.com offer dating services to woowho's 37,000 registered members.

Match.com plans to send an email explaining changes to subscribers this week. It wants to take woowho's co.uk and .com domains to offer links and direct traffic to Match.com.

Woowho subscribers are likely to be offered free membership for a trial period.

Woowho, which is predominately aimed at 25- to 45-year-olds, is 85 per cent-owned by digital agency netdecisions. It launched its services on Valentine's Day 2000. It typically shares revenues from subscription, reverse-bill SMS and voicemail with distribution partners on a 50:50 basis.

Joe Cohen, vice-president, international, at Match.com, confirmed the proposed deal was a commercial agreement with netdecisions. "Woowho came to us and wanted to find a safe harbour for its members," he explained. "It has an urban professional demographic, and would offer our members more individuals to contact."

Although a spokesman at netdecisions neither confirmed nor denied the deal, he said: "Whatever comes out of this should be positive."