Edinburgh-based Cupid is to take a 75 per cent stake in the companies, which are run together by the same team in Munich and led by founder Andreas von Maltzen.

Bill Dobbie, chief executive of Cupid, comments: ‘This acquisition continues our stated strategy of international expansion and is an excellent opportunity for us to gain a foothold in the German-speaking markets.

‘We are confident that we will be able to grow the newly acquired sites through our experience in the online dating market, coupled with the local knowledge of the existing teams and the added benefit of a sustained billboard advertising campaign that has been arranged as part of the transaction.’

According to a statement, WomenWeb GmbH is Germany’s largest online community of female interest websites.

The acquisition is the first for AIM-listed Cupid since its February acquisition of IndianDating.com in a £125,000 deal. The dating business joined the AIM market in June 2010.

Cupid, previously known as Easydate prior to its acquisition of US company Cupid.com for £4.1 million in September 2010, owns other sites such as Benaughty.com and MatureDatingUK.com.

Under the terms of the deal, founder Andreas von Maltzan will continue to run the German sites. The remaining 25 per cent that is not being acquired by Cupid is owned by a combination of Media Ventures GmbH and Maltzan.