St. Valentine’s Massacre: Dating Site SNAP Plunges 12% on 4Q Loss

Shares of online dating site SNAP Interactive plunged nearly 12 percent Tuesday after the online dating site on Facebook reported a big fourth-quarter loss.

SNAP shares fell 22 cents to $1.68, lowering the New York-based dating site's market capitalization to only $63.4 million.

It's just a coincidence we reported on Valentine's Day, CFO Jon Pedersen said in an interview minutes before the close. We usually have 45 days after the close of the quarter to report results, and that's how it worked out.

SNAP said its fourth-quarter loss swelled to $1.4 million, or 4 cents a share, more than triple the year-earlier loss of $400,000 or a penny. Revenue doubled to $5.5 million.

Moreover, the company said its net installations on Facebook of its AreYouInterested app stood at 55 million, mainly Facebook members interested in dating.

Pedersen, though, said that doesn't mean they are all paying members. A year ago, SNAP had 85,000 paying members. The CFO, who has been married for many years, declined to say how many paying members the site has although it may report them in a later regulatory filing.

Deferred revenue, an indicator of new signups whose membership fees are paid over 12 months, rose 62 percent to $3.3 million. Pedersen said that was a sign of solid progress for the year.

The company reported cash and investments of $8.8 million, which the CFO said was enough for growth.

SNAP Interactive doesn't pay Facebook, based in Menlo Park, Calif., for hosting its dating applications, he said. Neither does gamer Zynga.

SNAP was started by former Lehman Brothers analyst Clifford Lerner and his brother Darrell Lerner. Cliff remains single while Darrell has recently married, Pedersen said.