Techcrunch: Adultfriendfinder sold for almost 1 billion dollars

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Lars may finally be allowed to come out of his hideout and explain himself!

A Rogue Affiliate tells me that there was a memo circulated giving an effective gag order from the top down. Im certain that the staff was told not to be discussion the dirty Zango dealings.

Im pretty sure before this rumor was being circulated that no one there for the most part had even known they had been sold.

Business as usual - is my speculation.

One thing is for sure. If the rumor is true...and I believe it is more than a rumor ... then Penthouse cashed out every asset and angle they had availible to seal the deal. Only a publically traded company could have scored a deal this size. The economics of it do not make sense otherwise.

Ponder this... all of these "small" buys of companies consolidating... Im certain they put in play deals of this size that you dont hear about.

Of course you wont read about this elsewhere until later.

[Rcourt64]

They dropped the necro program, So it ain't worth shit anymore

[Hell Puppy]

Pumping up numbers for a sale can make sense. Doing so in a manner that draws a ton of negative press does not, unless you have a buyer who does not have to care what public perception is.

As for coming in and doing wholesale changes, if what I think has happened is really the case, the m.o. would be exactly the opposite. If you buy something that is working, you leave it the hell alone for the most part.

You might seek some efficiencies in management (RIF). You might also eliminate any really over the top expensive perks. But day to day for the front line troops should be unimpacted, and you want it business as usual especially for customers, suppliers, etc.

Why would you lower affiliate payments? This isn't a mainstream startup operating at a loss just waiting for that big buy out or IPO. They're making a profit, a tidy profit. How do you do that with those insane payouts? Well, you either have hellacious retention, or you shave your ass off. Either way, the model is working, why fuck with it?