PE Firm Offers To Take JDate Parent Spark Networks Private

PE firm Grant Hill Partners, which might be best known for buying (and then selling) IGN, wants to take online dating company Spark Networks private. Grant Hill, which bought a minority stake in Spark Networks in late 2005 and now owns about a quarter of the company’s stock, is offering to buy the shares it does not own in a deal that would value the company at roughly $64 million.

In a letter to Spark Networks’ board, the PE firm writes that “as a private company, the company will have the ability both to focus exclusively on the long-term growth of its business without regard to short-term profitability and to eliminate taxing public company related expenses and management distractions. Full story...