Chicago hedge fund Peak6 Investments appears to have executed a swift, friendly takeover of West L.A.-based Spark Networks Inc., owner of dating websites JDate and ChristianMingle, the world’s largest Christian dating site.

Peak6, co-founded in 1997 by Matthew Hulsizer and Jenny Just, earlier this month became Spark’s largest shareholder after amassing a 16 percent stake for $7.8 million, which has since grown to 19 percent. The firm, which has reported assets under management of almost $13 billion, installed its own executives in top management and board positions.

The moves were announced on an Aug. 10 earnings call with Robert O’Hare, Spark’s chief financial officer, and John Lewis, a board member who is chief investment officer and managing partner of Osmium Partners, a Greenbrae investment management firm that holds the third-largest stake in Spark at 13 percent.

Lewis said on the call that Spark’s leadership approached Peak6 around two months ago about investing in the company. Peak6’s diverse portfolio does have an emphasis on technology and finance companies, including a less than 0.2 percent-stake in New York’s InterActiveCorp, the parent company of Match.com and Tinder of West Hollywood, both of which are rivals to Spark’s sites.

“As they dug into the opportunity, they brought an outstanding mix of the skill sets that we needed to transform the company,” Lewis said of Peak6. “As time went on, we found the opportunity, frankly, to be a no-brainer.”

Peak6 also signed a $1.5 million annual management services agreement to provide marketing, technology, strategy, development, and other services to Spark for five years. As part of the arrangement, Daniel Rosenthal, who had been chief executive of Peak6’s financial clearing firm Apex Clearing Corp., joined Spark as chief executive and took a seat on the board. Also joining Spark as chief technology officer is David Budworth, Peak6’s chief architect, while Peak6 Chief Marketing Officer Lisa McLafferty is the dating company’s new chief revenue officer. Peak6 President Brad Goldberg has taken a seat on the board at Spark. It’s unclear whether the new Spark C-suite will retain their positions with Peak6.

Current Spark Chief Executive Michael Egan will depart the company on Sept. 9, as will Chief Technology Officer Shailen Mistry and John Volturo, its chief marketing officer. The company said it expects to pay $450,000 in severance benefits and other costs related to the takeover.

Rosenthal, the incoming chief executive, said he was unavailable to comment.

Representatives of Osmium did not respond to a request for comment.

Out of date

Spark’s shares have tumbled 83 percent over the last three years, dropping to $1.44 as of Aug. 24 from $8.45 on June 1, 2013. (See page 40.) That precipitous decline occurred despite a corporate restructuring that began in late 2014 and included a workforce reduction and Egan’s appointment.

The company said in an Aug. 10 earnings report that it suffered a decline in subscriptions that fed a 26 percent decrease in revenue during the second quarter ended June 30 compared with a year-earlier period, generating $9.1 million for the period.

The company has struggled to compete with better-funded and tech-savvy competitors including Tinder and Santa Monica-based eHarmony Inc., something Spark noted in its latest annual report.

“Many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and larger customer bases than we do,” it says.

As a way to catch up to its rivals, Spark acquired New York-based Smooch Labs, makers of JSwipe, described as a Jewish version of Tinder, for $7 million in cash and stock. The acquisition ended a lawsuit filed in 2014 by Spark claiming that the ‘J’ in JSwipe had infringed on its trademark. According to Spark, JSwipe has more than 600,000 users across 70 countries.

A month later, Spark said it would redesign JDate and Christian Mingle, its flagship sites. The new version of ChristianMingle includes a “faith spectrum” designed to capture a broader audience. But with 16 million and 750,000 registered users, respectively, ChristianMingle and JDate still have a long way to go to catch up with Tinder’s reported 50 million monthly active users.

“I think Peak6 was attracted to the two strong franchises we have in JDate and ChristianMingle and I think they see opportunities for improvement there,” said O’Hare, Spark’s chief financial officer, on the earnings call.

The company is also looking into launching a Spanish-language version of ChristianMingle as well as other international opportunities, Lewis added during the earnings call.