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TWST: Please begin with a brief historical sketch of the company and a picture
of the things you're doing at the present time.
Mr. Thompson: Our first online community, JDate, was launched in late 1997. The
Founder, Joe Shapira, had the vision (and at the time it was visionary in many
respects) of launching a Website dedicated to online dating, but also targeted
toward the Jewish population. At the time, that was visionary because not only
was online dating really in its infancy, but clearly no one was targeting a
specific sub-population within the Internet for such a thing. So JDate grew and
became successful. Ultimately, the company went public in 2000 on the Frankfurt
Stock Exchange. The company has grown both by organic growth and also by mergers
and acquisitions over the ensuing years. The company was originally listed on
the Frankfurt Exchange, but over time, the investor base became US-based and the
company has largely had its business base from a revenue standpoint based in the
United States. So the decision was made to list our shares in the United States,
which we accomplished earlier this year. We are traded on the American Stock
Exchange under the ticker LOV, as well as a dual listing on the Frankfurt Stock
Exchange. TWST: How did it come about that your original investor base was mainly in
Europe?
Mr. Thompson: The original seed investment in the company came from Europe, and
in particular from some German-based investors, with whom the Founders had had
previous business relationships. There was also a third partner in the original
founding of the company who was based in London, and as a matter of convenience
as well as the investor base, formed the company as a UK company. So, when it
came time to approach the public offering markets with a European investor base,
they sought to sell shares on the Neuer Market, which was the market in Germany
at the time; when that market went kind of sideways, our shares got moved over
to trade on the Frankfurt Exchange.
Tickers included in this excerpt: LOV
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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