Ashley Madison dating site for adulterous clients reboots under new leaders

On Tuesday, the company revealed that Rob Segal is now the CEO of Avid Life Media (ALM), Ashley Madison’s parent company, while James Millership is the new President. Reuters reports that the company has brought on two new executives to revitalize the brand after the breach past year cost Avid Life more than a quarter of its revenue.

Chief executive Rob Segal and president James Millership took the helm in April, Avid Life said on Monday.

During their due diligence process, the Board mandated a team of independent forensic accounting investigators to review past business practices around bots and the ratio of male and female USA members who were active on the site.

The FTC is said to be investigating the social media site after a breach and allegations of fraudulent practices.

Referring to last year’s security breach, Mr Segal said: “We are profoundly sorry”, adding that more could perhaps have been spent on security.

Avid Life Media found itself on the receiving end of multiple class-action lawsuits but perhaps even more damning was the realization that Ashley Madison had been using chat algorithms, or “fembots”, to operate millions of fake female accounts and to chat with paying male customers. Fembots were shut down in 2014, but some USA users still spoke with the programs until late 2015, the report found.

The investigation confirmed that bots were no longer in use and also verified the authenticity of female members.

An FTC spokesman declined to comment.

The FTC fined another dating site, the England-based company JDI Dating Ltd, $616,165 in October 2014 for using “fake profiles to make people think they were hearing from real love interests and to trick them into upgrading to paid memberships”.

It has hired cyber security experts at Deloitte, and expects to reach the first level of Payment Card Industry compliance, an industry standard, by September.

Avid Life is on track to record roughly $80 million in revenue this year, with margin on earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization of 35 to 40 percent, said Millership.

The executives said the Ashley Madison name would endure, though they are moving some focus away from infidelity.

“We’re investing heavily in technology – and we’re looking at acquisitions, a total rebranding, new features, partnerships and new ventures”, Millership said in a statement. “Millions of people have continued to connect on our sites during the past year and they deserve a discreet, open-minded community where they can connect with like-minded individuals”, he says. One example is Serge Saumur, a lead plaintiff in the Canadian civil case, who told Reuters that he’s single and that he joined the site in early 2015.