Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles website AshleyMadison, an adultery website seeking to an IPO for the second time. The company has been experiencing a boom in business and wants the funds for marketing and international expansion. This brokerdealer blog update is courtesy of Bloomberg Business’s article, “Adultery Website AshleyMadison Seeks IPO as Demand Booms” with an excerpt below.
AshleyMadison.com, a dating website for cheating spouses, wants to hook up with investors by pursuing an initial public offering in London this year.
The site’s parent company, which failed with a previous IPO attempt in Canada, said on Wednesday it is looking to raise as much as $200 million to exploit booming demand for its services.
AshleyMadison had sales of $115 million last year, an almost fourfold increase on 2009, Christoph Kraemer, its head of international relations said in an interview. It makes money by charging men for credits, which they then use for introductions to women.
AshleyMadison has 36 million members in 46 countries, Kraemer said, and claims to be the world’s second-largest paid-for Internet dating website, behind Match.com.
While the U.S. accounts for about 50 percent of its business, Kraemer said “Europe is the only region where we have a real chance of doing an IPO” because of its more liberal attitude toward adultery.
“We’re no longer a niche, but it’s been difficult in North America to find the support to go public,” he added.
To continue reading about the success of this adultery website and its second attempt at an IPO, click here.