Liberty Buys Majority in Body Building Site For More Than $100 Million
By Rafat Ali - Sun 06 Jan 2008 11:14 PM PST
Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA) is beefing up its online portfolio, in more ways than one: it is buying a majority stake in sports nutrition and fitness info site BodyBuilding.com, for more than $100 million, according to WSJ. It is buying the stake from the site’s founding family and a private-equity firm. CEO Ryan DeLuca’s family sold a 60 percent interest in the company to Milestone Partners, a Pennsylvania private-equity firm, in 2006.
The site has two components: an e-commerce site selling sports and fitness nutrition products, and the other part is a fitness info and resource section. It was founded in 1999 and based in Meridian, Idaho. BodyBuilding also operates BodySpace, a social network where more than 100,000 users post pictures of their bulging muscles and swap exercise goals. Bodybuilding.com’s sales are increasing at more than 60 percent a year, according to the companies, and are expected to top $100 million in 2008.
Bodybuilding.com will also be promoted through Liberty-portfolio company QVC, using its direct-marketing and video-commerce experience, the company said. More details in the release here.
Posted in: Technologies/Formats, E-commerce, VC+M&A
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