Penthouse magazine owner to buy daily deal site JigoCity

Now, even Penthouse wants to get into the pants of your favorite Groupon clone. FriendFinder Networks, which owns the famous adult magazine, is looking to buy up JigoCity owner BDM Global Ventures for US$65 million, reported Reuters on 12th September.

JigoCity, which was started in America, operates in 20 countries worldwide, including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and many parts of Asia. While its presence in the Singapore market is small, it claims to have a worldwide revenue of US$600,000 in July and US$1.1 mil in August. The site’s net income is unknown.

This is surely the stuff of dreams. FriendFinder owns an extensive portfolio of adult websites which includes AdultFriendFinder, NoStringsAttached.com, BDSM.com, and many more. Heck, if you’re an exhibitionist, there’s something for you too.

They also own innocuous dating websites of all stripes, including ones for Indians, Italians, Jews, gays, and yes, Christians.

According to Reuters, FriendFinder’s reason for acquiring BDM is so that they tap into markets like China and the Asia-Pacific region.

In return, JigoCity gets access to a massive user base across FriendFinder’s social networks, “some of which already operate in Asia”. And don’t laugh, it claims to have some 484 million users in over 200 countries.

What makes the deal somewhat of an oddball, though, is that JigoCity is vastly different from FriendFinder’s existing portfolio. But according to min online, BDM’s CEO Tony Bobulinski and his top executives will continue to operate JigoCity with its current brand identity, so don’t expect the website to show discounts or advertisements of the titillating variety.

JigoCity ads, however, could appear on harmless sites like ChineseFriendFinder.com and even FilipinoFriendFinder.com, although I won’t be surprised if they show up on the lucrative adult-oriented sites too. Not sure if that’s what JigoCity’s CEO has in mind though.

FriendFinder’s acquisition came soon after it suffered a bad IPO debut in May — one of the worst in recent years according to 24/7 Wall St. From the initial $10, share prices plummeted to around $3 by late August.

But this did not stop the company from betting on BDM. In fact, companies have been busy snapping up daily deal sites like Monopoly properties: The acquisition of JigoCity is just the latest in a string of buyouts and investments in the Asia-Pacific region.

Looks like it does pay to be a clone after all.

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