- Acquisition Projected to Increase The
Meet Group’s Audience to more than 15 Million Mobile Monthly Active
Users
- LOVOO expected to be The Meet Group’s
Single Most Trafficked App
- Expected to Diversify The Meet Group’s
Mobile Revenue, More Than Doubling International, Subscription, and
In-App Purchasing Revenue
- Expected to be Accretive to Non-GAAP
Earnings Per Share in 2018 and Beyond
- Funded with Existing Cash and an
Increase of the Company’s Existing Debt Facility
The Meet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEET), a public market leader in
the mobile meeting space, today announced it has executed a
definitive agreement to acquire LOVOO, a social dating app, for $70
million in cash, inclusive of a $5 million contingent earn-out.
This acquisition furthers The Meet Group’s strategy to innovate,
acquire, and build the largest mobile portfolio of brands for
meeting new people. The LOVOO acquisition is expected to expand The
Meet Group’s global footprint, increase the company’s scale and
profitability, and diversify its business model by adding expertise
in subscription and in-app purchasing.
This Smart News Release features multimedia.
View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170920005645/en/
LOVOO is a social and mobile technology company based in
Germany:
- The #1 Dating App in German speaking
countries (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) in terms of app store
downloads. Top 3 in Southern Europe (Italy, Spain and France)
- Trailing twelve-month revenue of €27.2
million or $32.4 million based on current exchange rates
- Diversified revenue streams:
Subscriptions 48%; In-app Purchases 24%; Ads 28%
- Expected to represent The Meet Group’s
largest single app in terms of traffic
- Approximately 5 million monthly active
users (MAU) and 1.9 million daily active users (DAU)
- 47,000 new global registrations per
day
- 97 Full-time employees – Dresden and
Berlin
Key highlights of the expected scale of The Meet Group plus
LOVOO include:
- Projected Mobile MAU of 15.8 million,
an increase of 48% from The Meet Group’s 10.7 million average in Q2
2017
- Projected Mobile DAU of 4.6 million, an
increase of 71% from The Meet Group’s 2.7 million average in Q2
2017
- Projected Mobile chats sent per day of
74.6 million, an increase of 19.9% from The Meet Group’s 62.2
million average in Q2 2017
- Projected Mobile new users per day of
193,000, an increase of 32% from The Meet Group’s 146,000 per day
average in Q2 2017
Financial impact of acquisition:
- Expected to provide significantly
increased scale in user base and revenues
- Expected to diversify the Company’s
revenue mix, increasing international mobile revenue by 169% and
increasing mobile non-advertising revenue by 168% in Q2 on
pro-forma combined basis
- Expect acquisition to be accretive to
the Company’s non-GAAP EPS in 2018 and beyond
- Expect transaction to be financed with
existing cash on hand and a non-dilutive increase to $80 million of
the Company’s existing debt facility, with JPMorgan Chase Bank,
N.A. and Silicon Valley Bank acting as co-lead agents
Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, said, “We are very excited to
expand our global footprint and add LOVOO to our portfolio of apps.
LOVOO is our third strategic acquisition in the last 12 months and
will represent our largest single app in terms of traffic. We are
focused on accelerating growth across our portfolio of brands
through innovating our livestreaming video product and sharing best
practices in monetization and engagement across the portfolio.”
The Company expects that LOVOO will remain a separate brand and
standalone mobile application following the closing of the
acquisition, and that LOVOO’s headquarters will remain in Dresden,
Germany. The Company has extended offers to all of LOVOO’s 97 full
time employees. LOVOO’s Co-Founder and CEO Benjamin Bak has agreed
to assist with the transition for six months after closing.
Effective upon closing, Florian Braunschweig, current COO and
Co-Founder, has agreed to take over leadership of LOVOO as the new
General Manager and Managing Director. The rest of the LOVOO
management team is expected to remain in place.
David Clark, Chief Financial Officer of The Meet Group, added,
“We expect the acquisition to close in October 2017, to be
accretive to non-GAAP EPS and to generate additional free cash flow
for The Meet Group in 2018 and beyond. This acquisition is expected
to help further diversify our revenue streams with 48% of LOVOO’s
revenue coming from subscriptions and 24% from in-app
purchasing.”
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is serving as legal counsel to
The Meet Group.
Webcast and Conference Call Details
Management will host a webcast and conference call today,
September 20, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time to discuss the
acquisition. To access the call dial 888-461-2021 (US and Canada)
(+1 719-325-2111 outside the United States and Canada) and when
prompted provide the participant passcode 4996344 to the operator.
In addition, a webcast of the conference call will be available
live on the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at
www.themeetgroup.com and a replay of the webcast will be available
for 90 days.
About The Meet Group
The Meet Group (NASDAQ:MEET) is a fast-growing portfolio of
mobile apps designed to meet the universal need for human
connection. Using innovative products and sophisticated data
science, The Meet Group keeps its approximately 2.7 million mobile
daily active users engaged and originates untold numbers of casual
chats, friendships, dates, and marriages. The Meet Group offers
advertisers the opportunity to reach customers on a global scale
with hundreds of millions of daily mobile ad impressions. The Meet
Group utilizes high user density, economies of scale, and leading
monetization strategies with the goal of maximizing adjusted
EBITDA. The Company’s apps – currently MeetMe®, Skout®, Tagged®,
and Hi5® – let users in more than 100 countries chat, share photos,
stream live video, and discuss topics of interest, and are
available on iPhone, iPad, and Android in multiple languages. For
more information, please visit http://www.themeetgroup.com.
About LOVOO
Founded in 2012, LOVOO is a leading European dating
app and the largest German-speaking dating app by downloads. The
privately held company is based in Dresden and Berlin, Germany, and
is available in 15 languages to its 1.9 million mobile daily active
users. LOVOO changes people's lives by changing how they meet
through innovative location-based algorithms and app radar features
helping people find successful matches. Learn more about LOVOO
by visiting LOVOO.com, downloading the app on iPhone or
Android, subscribing to the LOVOO blog, or following LOVOO
on Twitter and Facebook.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995, including whether the acquisition of LOVOO
furthers the Company’s strategy to innovate, acquire and build the
largest mobile portfolio of brands for meeting new people; whether
the acquisition of LOVOO will expand the Company’s global
footprint, increase the Company’s scale and profitability, and
diversify the business model by adding expertise in subscription
and in-app purchasing; whether LOVOO will be The Meet Group’s
largest app in terms of traffic and its single most trafficked app;
whether LOVOO will diversify The Meet Group’s mobile revenue and
more than double its international, subscription and in-app
purchasing revenue; whether the combined company will achieve the
Company’s expected scale with regard to MAU, DAU, mobile chats sent
per day and new mobile users per day; whether the acquisition of
LOVOO will significantly increase the Company’s user base and
revenues, diversify the revenue mix, be accretive to non-GAAP
earnings per share in 2018 and beyond; whether the acquisition will
be funded with existing cash on hand and an increase in the
Company’s existing debt facility; whether LOVOO will remain a
separate brand and standalone mobile application following the
closing of the acquisition; whether Florian Braunschweig will take
over leadership of LOVOO effective at the Closing; whether the
LOVOO management team will remain in place after the closing;
whether LOVOO headquarters will remain in Dresden, Germany; whether
and when the acquisition of LOVOO will close; and whether the
acquisition will generate free cash flow for the Company in 2018
and beyond. All statements other than statements of historical
facts contained herein are forward-looking statements. The words
“believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,”
“should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “project,” “is
likely,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us,
are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based
these forward-looking statements largely on our current
expectations and projections about future events and financial
trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results
of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Important
factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the
forward-looking statements include the risk that our applications
will not function easily or otherwise as anticipated, the risk that
we will not launch additional features and upgrades as anticipated,
the risk that unanticipated events affect the functionality of our
applications with popular mobile operating systems, any changes in
such operating systems that degrade our mobile applications’
functionality and other unexpected issues which could adversely
affect usage on mobile devices. Further information on our risk
factors is contained in our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2016 filed with the SEC on March 9, 2017 and our
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2017
filed with the SEC on May 10, 2017. Any forward-looking statement
made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made.
Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may
emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict
all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by
law.
Regulation G – Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The Company defines mobile traffic and engagement metrics
(including MAU, DAU, chats per day, and new users per day) to
include mobile app traffic for all properties and mobile web
traffic for MeetMe and Skout.
This press release includes a discussion of Adjusted EBITDA from
continuing operations which is a non-GAAP financial measure. For
completed fiscal periods, reconciliations to the most directly
comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the Investors
section of our corporate website, www.meetmecorp.com.
The Company defines Adjusted EBITDA as earnings (or loss) from
operations before interest expense, benefit or provision for income
taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation,
warrant obligations, non-recurring acquisition, restructuring or
other expenses, gain or loss on cumulative foreign currency
translation adjustment, gain on sale of asset, bad debt expense
outside the normal range, and goodwill and long-lived asset
impairment charges. The Company excludes stock based compensation
because it is noncash in nature.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170920005645/en/
MEET Investor Contact:The
Blueshirt GroupAllise Furlani or Brinlea
Johnson212-331-8433IR@Themeetgroup.comorMEET Press Contact:Brandyn
Bissinger267-446-7010bbissinger@themeetgroup.com
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