Dec 132007
The New York Times reports that United Media has withdrawn its proposal to IPO its Classmates.com unit.
United Media cited “unfavorable market conditions” for the withdrawal, but Cowen & Co. analyst Jim Friedland puts it more bluntly: “We expect the Classmates.com subscriber base to peak in the first half of 2008, followed by a steady decline to zero by 2012.”
Ouch!
Classmates.com is a paid subscription site that apparently doesn’t have much of a plan for how to compete against free sites like Facebook that provide better services and larger social networks.
