From ubiquitous banner ads to an IPO. That’s the plan for Classmates Media Corp., operator of the Classmates.com Web site and subsidiary of United Online Inc. Classmates filed a registration statement for an IPO Monday, with Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank Securities listed as underwriters.

In case you didn’t think a Web site that helps people reconnect with former classmates, colleagues and military pals could be a successful business, much less an IPO candidate, think again.

Classmates, now billing itself as a social networking site, had more than 50 million registered accounts as of June 30 and 2.7 million paying accounts. Its revenues in the first quarter of 2007 totaled $42.4 million; the site generated $152.1 million in all of 2006. It is on the cusp of profitability, losing $250,000 in the first quarter after making $171,000 for all of 2006.

A Classmates IPO would be a boon for United Online, operator of discount Internet service providers NetZero and Juno. The Woodland Hills, Calif.-based company acquired Classmates for $100 million in 2004, when it had half as much revenue as it has today. —David Shabelman

See October 2004 story from TheDeal.com

Tags: ipo, m&a, vc, venture+capital