Classmates.com Sold for $30 Million

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United Online Inc. sold off its social media business Classmates.com to Intelius Holdings Inc. in a deal valued at $30 million.

Intelius, in Bellevue, Wash., offers search, reverse people lookup, background checks and identity theft protection. It was acquired last month by private equity firm HIG Capital in San Francisco.

Classmates.com was founded in 1995 as an early social media site connecting users with school, work and military service colleagues. It was acquired by United Online, in Woodland Hills, in 2004 and the name later was changed to Memory Lane to reflect an evolution to a nostalgia-based site that included digitized high school yearbooks.

The sale does not include similar social networking sites StayFriends and Trombi that United Online operates in Europe.

United Online Chief Executive Francis Lobo said the sale of Classmates.com is consistent with a strategy to focus on e-commerce, loyalty programs and Internet access.

“This divestiture of a non-strategic asset will enable us to allocate additional capital to fuel growth in our existing businesses and in new products,” Lobo said in a statement.

Shares closed up 33 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $12.26 on the Nasdaq.

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