by Deepa Seetharaman & Georgia Wells
See full article at Wall Street Journal
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Category: Match Group
Market Swipes Left On Match Group
REUTERS – May 2 – Shares of Match Group and its parent IAC plunged, wiping some $5B off their combined market values, after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook would enter the online dating world. Match fell 22% and IAC fell ~18% in its biggest daily loss in about 13 years. Spark Networks, owner of Jdate and Christian Mingle, also closed 4% lower. Although analysts said Facebook's initial foray would not likely be a threat to established dating sites.
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Facebook Is Taking On Tinder With New Dating Features
by Nick Statt
See full article at The Verge
Match Group’s Long Term Sustainable Competitive Advantage
OPW – Apr 25 – I came across this great article on sustainable competitive advantage by the V.C. company Greylock Partners. It got me thinking about Match Group. They're the clear leader in the dating industry now, of course. But what aspects of their business are contributing to their long term sustainable competitive advantage?
Let's look down the list that Greylock Partners' article lists…
- Network Effects – NO
- Scale – YES, ABSOLUTELY!
(i) Negotiated Leverage – YES
(ii) Amortization of Fixed Costs – YES
(iii) Product Density – YES, VERY SUBSTANTIALLY YES - Brand – YES
- Non-Network Switching Costs – YES
- Regulatory – NO
- Technical Advantage – YES
- Cornered Access to Limited Supply – NO
Read the full article on IDEA blog
Post by Mark Brooks, CEO IDEA
A Match.com Glitch Reactivated A Bunch Of Old Profiles
THE VERGE – Apr 23 – A Match Group spokesperson confirmed that a "limited number" of old accounts had been accidentally reactivated recently and that any account affected received a password reset. Match.com's current privacy statement says that the company can "retain certain information associated with user account" even after they close it. The company plans to roll out a new privacy policy in order to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); under the new policy, all those years-old accounts will be deleted. Although there is no federal data destruction law in the US, 32 states have data disposal laws that require "entities to destroy, dispose, or otherwise make personal information unreadable or undecipherable."
10 Reasons To Invest In Match Group
SEEKING ALPHA – Apr 17 – Buy and hold MTCH for at least three to five years. Here's why:
- An emerging and fast-growing online dating services market
- Limited competition Tinder just made $0.4B revenue in 2017 and its closest competitors also are Match Group properties such as Match.com or POF.
- Tinder is a worldwide brand with no close number two internationally
- A strong leadership. An industry leader enforcing its patent
- Multiple growth – users, subscribers and revenue
- A scalable platform that costs little to operate. Operating profit already is at 27% in 2017, and projected to be above 30% in 2018.
- Higher barrier to entry for new entrants as the industry matures
- M&A history of Match Group
- Price appreciation. Since its IPO at $13.5 a share, Match Group's share price has been climbing steadily and is now very close to its all-time high.
- Valuation – Match Group is richly valued if we consider the price/sales ratio of 9 or the trailing P/E of 38.
Match Group Appoints Malgosia Green CEO Of Plenty Of Fish
PR NEWSWIRE – Apr 12 – Green founded and led various consumer and education tech companies in Toronto and has a strong track-record building and leading product and engineering teams. Most recently Green served as the Chief Product Officer of Top Hat, an innovative education technology business where higher education instructors can create content to engage students both in and outside the classroom.
The full article was originally published at Match Group website, but is no longer available.
Bumble Is Suing Match For $400M For Fraudulently Obtaining Trade Secrets
TECH CRUNCH – Mar 28 – Two weeks ago Match Group sued Bumble for patent infringement and misuse of intellectual property. Bumble has now filing a separate lawsuit accusing Match of multiple improprieties in regards to interactions between the two companies over the past few months. The lawsuit acknowledges that Bumble and Match Group were in acquisition talks over the last 6 months. Bumble alleges that once Match Group found out there were other companies also interested in either investing in or acquiring Bumble, Match Group filed their aforementioned lawsuit to make Bumble less attractive to those other companies. Secondly, Bumble alleges that during the acquisition process Match Group fraudulently requested that Bumble provide "confidential and trade secret information" which Match Group said they "needed to provide a higher offer for Bumble". Bumble alleges that no subsequent offer came, and Match Group instead requested and obtained this information solely for "the financial benefit of its dating app businesses". The lawsuit requests relief in the form of monetary damages, which Bumble estimates at $400M.
by Fitz Tepper
See full article at Tech Crunch
Match Group Is Defending Itself In A Patent Lawsuit Filed In January By PersonalWeb Technologies
RPX INSIGHT – Mar 21 – PersonalWeb Technologies, a company based in Texas, is suing Match Group for patent infringement. PersonalWeb Technologies owns several patents that are fundamental to cloud computing, distributed search engine file systems and content addressable storage and social networks. The company filed the complaint on January 24th, 2018, and claims Match Group has infringed 5 of its patents. More info here.
Match Group Also Sues Chinese Dating App Tantan
LAW360 – Mar 20 – Match Group has filed another intellectual property lawsuit. This time against Tantan, a dating service billed as "China's Tinder". Match Group is accusing Tantan of infringing its design patents and trademarks by copying Tinder's swiping system including "nearly identical" match screen. Tantan was acquired by Chinese social media app Momo for $760M last month.
by Bill Donahue
See full article at Law360