It's early dismissal for Classmates Media's IPO, its corporate parent has decided.

United Online said Wednesday that it would withdraw its registration application to take its Classmates unit public.

If the 12-million share IPO had gone off at $11, the middle of its estimated offering price, it could have raised $132 million, not counting fees.

In a statement, United Online said only that proceeding "under current market conditions would not be in the best interests of shareholders."

United bought Classmates in 2004 for $100 million and had planned to sell about 20 percent of the company.

In late-afternoon trading, shares of United Online, operator of the NetZero and Juno brand Internet service providers, fell $1.03, or 8.4 percent, to $11.29.

The Classmates IPO was closely watched as an indicator of the market's appetite for social media companies.

Classmates, which offers tools to let former schoolmates get in touch, competes against Reunion.com, which got a $25 million A round from Oak Investment Partners in April to back up $1.4 million in seed funding.

In June, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sent Classmates a letter saying it is investigating its practices in marketing paid subscriptions to consumers.

For the quarter ended September 30, Classmates posted revenue of $126.8 million versus $129.6 million in the 2006 quarter. Diluted net income per share was flat at $0.20 for both periods.