October 26, 2004
United Online, the parent of NetZero and Juno, is buying Classmates Online for $100 million, giving it a database of 38 million people from more than 200,000 schools.
Classmates reported having 1.4 million paid subscribers in September, 10.3 million monthly live accounts and a total of 38 million in its database. United had weak subscriber growth in the last quarter and is hungry for fresh prospects. It has about 6.6 million subscribers to its Internet access services.
"Our proposed purchase of Classmates is consistent with our stated mission to expand our network of affordable, high-quality consumer Internet subscription services," Mark Goldston, chairman, CEO and president of United Online, said.
Classmates, based in Renton, Washington, was named service provider of the year by a trade group in March for "demonstrating innovation and excellence in technology."
