deals

This page highlights some landmarks in the online social network services industry.

     1998

YouthStream acquires Sixdegrees.com for US$125m

     1999

Yahoo! acquires Geocities for US$5bn

     2002

Reunion.com acquires HighSchoolAlumni.com from IGN (then Snowball) and PlanetAlumni.com - combined membership of 6.7 million users

     2003

IAC buys Udate.com for US$150m

     2004

Reunion.com acquires GoodContacts

United Online buys Classmates.com

Memberworks (later Vertrue) pays US$116m for Lavalife

     2005

News Corporation acquires MySpace for US$580m

United Online buys photo-sharing service PhotoSite

Yahoo! acquires site Flickr for US$30m

ITV plc acquires Friends Reunited for £120m

     2006

Reunion.com buys MyAddressBook.com

Meetic buys Lexa in Netherlands and Yeeyoo in China

Meetic buys eFriends in China for US$20m

     2007

US$800m LBO of Vertrue (Lavalife operator)

Meetic buys DatingDirect for £27.3m

CBS pays US$280m for Last.fm

Nokia buys photo-sharing site Twango (est 2004)

Microsoft pays US$240m for 1.6% stake in Facebook

Google announces OpenSocial standards initiative with MySpace, Bebo, SixApart, Hi5, Friendster, LinkedIn and Ning

Penthouse Media Group pays US$500m for Various Inc. (inc adultfriendfinder, gradfinder.com and bigchurch.com)

     2008

AOL pays US$850m for Bebo

Comcast agrees to buy Plaxo

XING buys SocialMedien for US$4m

     2010

AOL sells Bebo for US$10m

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