Noel Biderman knows how to sell his brand: his AshleyMadison website currently boasts more than 4.5 million aspiring cheaters. He’s not one of them, of course.Photographer: paulbuceta.com
Adultery enabler Ashley Madison may be too hot for the streetcar, but not for the stock market.
Avid Life Media Inc., the parent company of dating websites such as CougarLife.com , EstablishedMen.com and the notorious AshleyMadison.com , a site for people seeking extramarital relationships, is raising $60-million and is pushing for a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, sources say. It's one of at least seven Canadian technology companies that could make its debut on public markets in coming months as investors rekindle a long-dormant interest in growth stocks.
Avid Life is in the final stages of a process that would see it begin trading on a Canadian stock exchange in a matter of weeks. The move comes just a month after the Toronto Transit Commission spurned a $200,000 ad campaign from the company that would have seen a number of its streetcars sporting the slogan, "Life is short. Have an affair" and the Ashley Madison website address.
Even Bay Street, with its well-documented zeal for any money-making idea, is struggling with the idea of backing a company premised on breaking one of the Ten Commandments. A number of investment dealers declined to join what is being described as an "entertaining" sales campaign run by Avid Life's bankers at GMP Capital Inc.
One financier who passed on the deal said that, while the company is sound, after talking to institutional investors his firm decided: "A lot of customers won't want to buy it."
GMP's pitch to investors seeks to play down the Ashley Madison connection by noting that the site accounts for just 15 per cent of Avid Media's sales.
Those who can get past the idea of infidelity will find a profitable digital media business.
Avid Life posted $30-million of sales and $8-million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (or EBITDA) in 2009. The latter number was a four-fold increase from 2008, according to documents used to market the deal.
Avid Life will use part of the money it raises in a private placement to acquire privately held Moxy Media, an online advertising sales company based in Guelph, Ont., that runs more than 300 websites.
The merger would create a far larger, and more diverse, media company.
Moxy reported sales of $192-million and $27-million of EBITDA in 2009, according to documents used to market the deal. After the takeover, Avid Life will list on the TSX Venture Exchange or Toronto Stock Exchange by staging a reverse takeover of a shell company.
Avid Life is trying to win over investors who are showing new-found interest in small-to-medium-sized technology stocks after a two-year dry spell for initial public offerings.
The recent burst of IPO activity reflects institutional and individual investors shifting their portfolios from defensive holdings such as bonds and into companies that promise strong growth.
Three mid-sized Canadian tech companies are targeting IPOs that include listings on U.S. stock exchanges.
Ottawa's Mitel Networks is close to completing a $230-million (U.S.) offering.
Next up are Smart Technologies ULC, a Calgary-based maker of digital whiteboards, and Toronto-based ViXS Systems Inc., which builds networking equipment for multimedia.