After the hack, it seems that the dating website AshleyMadison.com can say good bye to their plans to launch a London IPO this year, according to banking sources. The hackers threatened to publish spicy details and about the website's clients unless the AshelyMadison.com shuts itself down.
Five years after a lack of investor interest caused it to cancel attempts of listing at home, now the website's Canadian parent has to also give up its plans to gain up to million by listing its shares in London.
Hackers attacking the site have threatened to leak real names, sexual fantasies, nude photos, and even credit card information for the 37 million worldwide customers of Ashley Madison.
This is just another data breach from a long series. For the bad the company behind Ashley Madison website, which has a database of confidential customer data, this breach in security could be totally disastrous. For a business model based on complete confidentially, Ashley Madison lost their credibility.
If the hackers make public the real names and addresses of the infidelity website, this would be the doomsday scenario for Ashley Madison, according to a Canadian investment banker, who requested confidentiality.
Ashley Madison, with their over 37 million members worldwide, claims to be the second largest dating site in the world, after Only Match.com, owned by IAC/InterActive Corp, the company of the media mogul Barry Diller.
The Canadian parent company of Ashley Madison, Avid Life Media, also owns websites such as EstablishedMen.com and Cougarlife.com. The company has reported revenue of in 2014, and values itself at billion.
With the scandal surrounding the website Ashley Madison, Avid Life Media will have to put any IPO plans on hold, according to a second Canadian investment banker. No back would consider investing in it before at least a few months will pass by and the buzz around the hack will fade off.
Avid Life Media could easily survive waiting for investors a few more months, however if the data eventually gets leaked this could really push the company to go bankrupt. The reputation of the company and the customer trust will dramatically fall in such an event.
The spokesman for Avid Life, Paul Keable, declared that it is yet too early to truly estimate the damage to the IPO plans or company's business model from the breach. No comments were made on the eventuality that in the face of the hacker's threat the company would shut down.
The hacker's attack seems to be caused by Ashley Madison website full delete offer that allows removing members profiles for a fee of The website's claim appeared to be the reason why the website was hacked. The hackers were more than willing to demonstrate that is no such thing online like "fully delete personal data" and once on the Web personal information will ever be at risk to be exposed.
