A team of Gleiss Lutz lawyers advised Zoosk Inc., one of the leading online dating companies in North America, on the conclusion of a merger agreement with Spark Networks. Within the scope of the merger, Spark will acquire all shares in Zoosk in return for the issuance of new stock and an additional cash payment. The deal is worth around USD 255 million. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019 and is subject to the customary regulatory approvals. The transaction will create the second largest online dating platform in North America and the second largest publicly listed online dating company in the world.
Zoosk is a leading online dating company based in San Francisco. As the no. 1 app for online dating in the Apple App Store, Zoosk is a market leader for dating on mobile devices. As an online dating platform, Zoosk reaches members in over 80 countries and in 25 languages.
Spark Networks SE is a leading international dating company based in Berlin. It has a presence in 29 countries worldwide. American depository receipts of Spark Networks are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "LOV".
Fenwick & West advised Zoosk as lead counsel for the transaction.
Led by Dr. Christian Cascante (partner, Frankfurt) and Dr. Patrick Mossler (partner, Hamburg), the Gleiss Lutz team included the following lawyers: Dr. Jochen Tyrolt (partner), Dr. Maike Sauter (both Stuttgart), Steffen Carl (partner, Munich), Dr. Daniel Heck (Hamburg), Andrej Popp (Frankfurt), Dr. Hilmar Hütten (Düsseldorf, all corporate/M&A), Dr. Alexander Molle (partner), Dr. Matthias Schilde (both Berlin, IP/IT), Dr. Christian Hamann (partner, Berlin), Dr. Manuel Klar (Munich, both data protection), Dr. Johann Wagner (partner), Dr. Jens Wrede (both tax, Hamburg), Dr. Doris-Maria Schuster (partner), Dr. Sebastian Schulte, Hauke Darius Wolf (all employment), Dr. Eva Reudelhuber (partner), Alexander Wiegand (both finance, all Frankfurt), Dr. Eric Wagner (partner), Anna Karpf (both commercial, Stuttgart), Konrad Discher (real estate, Berlin).
Forward
