Riverside gets into the dating business

Date: 2006-09-29

<< Previous news | All news | Next news >>

The Riverside Co., a Cleveland private equity firm, has found a mate in acquiring the dating service It’s Just Lunch International.

Terms of the deal were not revealed. It’s Just Lunch, which arranges first-date lunches or after-work drinks for singles, saw annual revenue growth of between 25% and 50% between 2001 and 2005, though a Riverside statement did not disclose more specific numbers.

It’s Just Lunch, headquartered in Palm Desert, Calif., converted to a franchise system in 2001 and currently has 100 total locations in the United States, Canada, and abroad in England, Singapore, Australia, Ireland and the Dominican Republic. The company has a Cleveland franchise.

“Franchising is an industry we obviously find attractive,” said Loren Schlachet, a partner in Riverside’s Cleveland office, in a statement.

Dating industry related news
Lots of Americans find their match on-line	HotEnough dating site makes no apologies for promoting lust	Edinburgh is city for romance, according to survey
Spring is in the air, and, after a long winter hibernation, so is love. Web-enabled love, that is. These days, many are turning to online matchmakers for romance. According to an April study by the Washington-based Pew Internet and American Life Project, 31 percent of American adults - that's 63 million people - know someone who has used a dating Web site. And 30 million Americans know someone who is in a long-term relationship or married to someone they met online....	Lust got some people in trouble last year. It brought down Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. It ruined U.S. Rep. Mark Foley. It split up Christie Brinkley and her philandering husband. It was a blow to the union of Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock and may have been a factor in the breakup of Britney Spears and whatshisname. Those are only a few examples of lust's bad reputation. It's blamed for everything from cheating spouses to our growing interest in pornograph...	EDINBURGH is perceived as a romantic and cultural city, while Glasgow is seen as edgy and poor, a survey has revealed. Liverpool, meanwhile, has been named as the most "chavvy" city in Britain. The study by ICD Research represents an online survey of 1,000 UK adults asked to associate a series of personality statements with ten cities. London and Edinburgh emerged as the clear winners, taking the top spot in ten of the most desirable categories. Edinburgh was the only city which came clo...
read more >>	read more >>	read more >>