{"id":369955,"date":"2021-11-20T03:13:16","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T00:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tinders-owner-lowballed-apps-value-even-as-revenue-surged-founder-claims\/"},"modified":"2021-11-20T03:13:16","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T00:13:16","slug":"tinders-owner-lowballed-apps-value-even-as-revenue-surged-founder-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tinders-owner-lowballed-apps-value-even-as-revenue-surged-founder-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tinder&#8217;s owner lowballed app&#8217;s value even as revenue surged, founder claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Tinder&#8217;s owner lowballed <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>&#8217;s value even as revenue surged, founder claims<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Barry Diller\u2019s dating-app giant Match Group lowballed the value of Tinder as it negotiated with the hookup app\u2019s founders over their exit packages in 2017, bilking them out of billions of dollars in the process, co-founder Sean Rad alleged in court.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, Rad testified on Friday that Match \u2013which also owns OKCupid, Hinge and PlentyOfFish \u2014 had assigned Tinder the same $3 billion value it had given the internally two years earlier, despite revenues that had since quadrupled.<\/p>\n<p>Rad made the dramatic allegation in support of a\u00a0lawsuit he and other early employees of Tinder filed\u00a0against Match and its parent IAC, the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> conglomerate controlled by Diller. They say Diller\u2019s\u00a0companies intentionally cooked the books to value Tinder at just $3 billion in 2017\u00a0when it should have been worth at least $13.2 billion. <\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re suing the companies for $2 billion, which they claim is their rightful cut of the proceeds. Match Group has denied the accusations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Rad described a 2015 valuation process in which some Tinder employees were allowed to sell stock options. In order to determine how much the employees would be paid for the options, Rad said Match\u2019s then-executive chairman Greg Blatt,<strong> <\/strong>who later became the CEO of both Match and Tinder, had to sign off on a number for Tinder\u2019s valuation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was Greg Blatt and the Match Group [who] set the valuation at $3 billion for Tinder in 2015,\u201d said Rad, adding that he had \u201cno question\u201d that Blatt had personally approved the dollar amount.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tinder was then valued again at $3 billion in 2017 \u2014 a move that jurors may question since Rad has testified that Tinder revenue had surged 400 percent between the valuations, according to Susquehanna litigation analyst Thomas Claps.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-01.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Tinder app\" class=\"wp-image-20206202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-01.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-01.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-01.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Tinder was valued at $3 billion in 2015 and 2017 \u2014 even though growth had skyrocketed between the two valuation dates, co-founder Sean Rad says. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThis piece of new trial evidence raises the obvious\/logical question for the jury of how Tinder could have only been worth $3 billion two years later,\u201d Claps said in an investor note shared with The Post.<\/p>\n<p>An IAC spokesperson told The Post that Tinder did not deserve the $3 billion price tag in 2015 but that the company made payments based on at a higher valuation to retain talent because they thought Tinder\u2019s employees had been misled about the company\u2019s valuation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 2015 certain Tinder employees had the ability to participate in a liquidity event in which IAC offered, and then did, buy Tinder options at a premium price,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cIAC took accounting charges because the price at which we purchased the Tinder options was well above the market value of Tinder, at the time. All accounting shows that Tinder was not valued at $3 billion in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Match\u2019s team has yet to cross-examine Rad on the claim, Claps said that he expects the argument to play heavily in Rad\u2019s team\u2019s closing arguments, which are slated for the week after Thanksgiving.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Barry-Diller_26.jpeg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Barry Diller\" class=\"wp-image-20206280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Barry-Diller_26.jpeg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/Barry-Diller_26.jpeg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Barry Diller denies his company cheated Sean Rad and other co-founders out of $2 billion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Blatt himself took the stand on Friday afternoon, where he was grilled by Rad attorney Orin Snyder about past statements he\u2019d made about Tinder\u2019s prospects, including a May 2017 investor call where Blatt said Tinder was an \u201cincredible business\u201d and said new features would continue \u201cdriving our continued growth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Blatt\u2019s testimony,<strong> <\/strong>Friday morning\u2019s session saw testimony in support of Rad from Jonathan Badeen, an early Tinder executive who is still with the company.<\/p>\n<p>Badeen, who was initially a plaintiff in Rad\u2019s suit but was forced to drop out because he had signed an arbitration agreement, testified that he felt pressure from Blatt to downplay Tinder\u2019s prospects in 2017. Blatt did not respond to the allegation on Friday but is expected to do so early next week when his testimony continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Match\u2019s attorneys sought to question Badeen\u2019s credibility by saying that he had signed a litigation funding agreement under which he stands to be paid an undisclosed amount of money if the jury rules in favor of Rad\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-blatt-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Greg Blatt\" class=\"wp-image-20206296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-blatt-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-blatt-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-blatt-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Former Match and Tinder CEO Greg Blatt took the stand on Friday afternoon.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rad\u2019s attorneys say that Badeen and two other witnesses with\u00a0litigation funding deals\u00a0\u2014 former Tinder executives James Kim and Rosette Pambakian \u2014 inked the agreements in order to help make up for stock options that Tinder took away when they initially joined the suit. They say that the money has nothing to do with their testimony.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Judge Joel Cohen, the Manhattan Supreme Court judge hearing the case, has declined to throw out witnesses with litigation funding deals but has said the defense is allowed to raise the issue to jurors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Rad\u2019s team questioned whether one juror in the trial had violated rules against discussing or looking at media coverage of the trial outside of the courtroom, telling Judge Cohen that a juror \u201ccomes into court with the New York Post tucked under his arm each day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Judge Cohen later reminded the jurors to not look at any media coverage of the trial.<\/p>\n<p>Rad spokeswoman Brandy Bergman did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0\u00a0\n                        <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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Specifically, Rad testified&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":369956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/tinder-00.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[119719,106812,116722,93139,21087,76162],"class_list":["post-369955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-19-21","tag-barry-diller","tag-match-com","tag-sean-rad","tag-tinder","tag-trials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}