Online Dating Blog

Earlier this week the CEO of eHarmony resigned for uncited reasons. At first I was surprised because I thought this was who the article was talking about:

Not the guy resigning…

Turns out that while Dr. Neil Clark Warren (pictured above) was the founder of eHarmony, he is not the CEO. The CEO was Gregory Waldorf, one of the founding investors.

(Related: see my full eHarmony Review)

So What Does This Mean to Singles Using eHarmony?

Probably nothing. I don’t mean to down-play changing the CEO of a company but eHarmony seems to have a pretty solid place in the market with a formula that works well for its customers. Studies from Harris Interactive claim that eHarmony was involved in 5% of marriages in the U.S. from 2008 to 2009 so obviously they’re doing something right.

That said, you really can never know how things might change. I know a lot of people were upset when the rules changed on some of the eHarmony free weekends and new leadership might reverse things (I wouldn’t hold my breath though). From the BusinessWeek article on this, it looks like this is more about the future and going public:

Though EHarmony hasn’t filed for an initial public offering, Waldorf said in an August interview with Bloomberg Television that the company considers it “all the time.” The leadership change may delay an IPO, giving investors time to become familiar with new management. On the secondary markets, EHarmony is valued at about $660 million, according to SharesPost Inc., an exchange for shares of private companies.

“Without a CEO you can’t go public,” said Lise Buyer, principal of the IPO advisory firm Class V Group. “It’s not just a matter of getting a new CEO — you need to let the new CEO get seasoned. Investors are always more comfortable if the CEO has been in the chair for a long time.”

I think the service will basically stay the same although I also think that in the future we might just see eHarmony go public.