Dive Brief:

• Fab.com is in discussions to be sold to manufacturing company PCH International for $15 million in a 50-50 stock-cash deal, several sources say.

• Founder Jason Goldberg’s project Hem, which he describes as a sort of “upscale Ikea,” would not be part of the deal. The company had a valuation of $1 billion a little over a year ago.

• The company, which began as a gay dating site and later morphed into a furniture flash-sales site, has battled rumors of its demise for months. Fab recently acquired a Finnish furniture company and announced layoffs a few times in the last year.

Dive Insight:

Fab has been something of an Internet retail shooting star, with drastic changes in its three years and even in the past 12 months. Very little is known about the practical aspects of this acquisition deal, if it turns out to be true.