The ultimate (back in the day) fan-boi Web 2.0 dating site PlentyOfFish, Inc. just went the same way as some of the sites did from that period (in a positive sense, most went tits up) and sold out, and in this case, for a staggering $575 million.

According to reports, the buyer was the Match Group, an IAC/InterActiveCorp division that owns other dating sites including Tinder and OkCupid.

Founded in 2003, PlentyOfFish offered a free dating website that offered a pile of complimentary features that many of its competitors didn’t, while offering premium services such as seeing when a user profile was viewed, and allowing users to see whether a message has been read or deleted. Users were also free to change their picture, profile details, and description without approval by the app/company itself, at its launch something very typical in the dating space.

PlentyOfFish founder Markus Find became a bit of a legend in himself, not so much for landing “the ladies” but for delivering such a popular site that stayed true to ideals before the fact that..hell yes (even if you’re the biggest fan in the world ,$575 million..there are some words that may offend religious Americans I’d like to say…so get the point) you have to admit: holding out  on half a billion dollars; would you say no?

Numbers

PlentyOfFish did not sell out lightly …actually, let’s be honest, $575 million for a, be it, popular dating site, is bat shit crazy.

$575 million. Let that sink in.

No one can begrudge founder Markis Frind for creating an amazing site, that by all accounts has hooked up millions of people.

But the entire foundation of the site was free dating: although later on there was add ons, they are still ones that are not popularly supported among the user base.

“As more people than ever use more dating apps than ever with more frequency than ever, PlentyOfFish’s addition both brings new members into our family of products and deepens the lifetime relationship we have with our users across our portfolio,” Chief of The Match Group Sam Yagan, said in a statement. “I look forward to working closely with Markus and extending the company’s impressive growth trajectory.”

Tell SiliconANGLE: do you believe that a Match-controlled POF will be the same again?

It may not be obvious, but you can comment on every single paragraph in this post by waving your pointer there to the left, clicking the “+” sign that appears, and going for it.

Please, go for it.

Image credit: kurt-b/Flickr/CC by 2.0