Israeli Internet start-up StarNet Interactive Ltd., owner of GirlSense a website for teenage girls, has been acquired by IAC Consumer Applications & Portals a division of US media group IAC/Interactive Corp. (Nasdaq: IACI), headed by Barry Diller. StarNet was founded by Cathy Glazer, the wife of Dr. Joshua Glazer, founder of start-up Gteko, which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) in November 2006. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. IAC Consumer Applications owns, among assets, Zwinky - a virtual world for teenagers.

GirlSense is a virtual community that offers teen girls aged 9-14 a place to develop social networks around fashion. Users can design their own fashions, sell them in their own virtual boutique that they have created, advertise them throughout the site, and schedule them for live auctions. Bidders have an opportunity to see the virtual fashions up for auction, view current bids and place their own, chat safely with other bidders in the auction room and see when the item has been sold.

Raanana-based StarNet says its site has 13 million registered unique users. The company has received $2.7 million in investment to date from Pitango Venture Capital, Leo Capital Holdings, and Yossi Vardi.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 22, 2008

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