FAST COMPANY – Jan 13 – "People think Tinder went public and I'm a billionaire," says CEO Sean Rad. "Add it to the long list of shit that's misunderstood about me." When Match Group announced its plan for IPO, many articles made it sound like Tinder itself was going public. The reality is that Match Group is the majority shareholder of Tinder. The Match Group IPO doesn't really impact us," Rad explains.
by Austin Carr
See full article at Fast Company
DALLAS NEWS – Jan 10 – "People over 50 are now more trusting of going on dating sites," said Navin Ramachandran, COO of Match Group. In fact, people ages 45 to 54 are as likely to date online as those 18 to 24 because they're divorced or far removed from typical dating hubs like college, according to a recent Pew Research Center report. The number of Match's 50+ singles has grown ~50% from 2009 through 2014 and account for 1/3 of all dating members. According to eHarmony: ~80K of its subscribers are over 80. The share of eHarmony's subscribers 50+ is also growing: from 9.5% in 2012 to 13.5% in 2015.
by Sheryl Jean
See full article at Dallas News
REUTERS – Jan 6 – Short sellers have been having trouble committing to Match Group. Match's stock has fallen 8% from the close of its first day of trading on Nov. 19, but following over a month of volatile trading, it is still up 13% from the $12 per share price set by underwriters in its IPO. Traders are betting Match would fall further and join other freshly listed stocks struggling to keep stock prices above their IPO levels. Short sellers borrow shares and then sell them, hoping to repurchase them at a lower price and then return them to their owner. In the meantime, they must also pay interest to the owner.
SEEKING ALPHA – Dec 22 – Match Group chairman Greg Blatt will become the online dating leader's chairman and CEO. Blatt replaces Sam Yagan, who will join the board as vice chairman. Princeton Review chief Mandy Ginsberg will become Match's North American chief, thus putting her in charge of Match.com, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish. Alexandre Lubot, CEO of Meetic, is now CEO of Match Group Europe, leaving him in charge of Meetic, Twoo, and other European brands. Match COO Navin Ramachandran is now CEO of Match Group Asia/Latin America, leaving him responsible for Pairs, Couples, ParPerfeito, and Match Asia. He'll remain COO. Princeton Review CPO Shar Dubey becomes president of Match Group North America and Emerging Brands GM Hesam Hosseini is the new GM of POF. Sean Rad will remain Tinder's CEO.
COLLECTIVEWISDOM.IO – Dec 15 – Match Group just went public, raising $400M. Sam Yagan spoke about how to handle negative PR, how to learn to love churn, and why founding a dating startup is harder than dating itself.
SEEKING ALPHA – Dec 8 – The 25-day IPO quiet period on MTCH will come to an end on Dec 14, allowing the firm's IPO underwriters to publish reports and recommendations on Dec 15. Match Group's share price will likely see a temporary increase as a result of the release of underwriter reports.
by Don Dion
The full article was originally published at Seeking Alpha, but is no longer available.
NYTIMES – Nov 23 – IAC has created more value for shareholders over the last two decades than Disney or Microsoft. Mr. Diller's business model: Buy digital businesses, fold them into a conglomerate and then spin out the most successful ones. He started the experiment of breaking up IAC in 2008. There's Expedia, TripAdvisor (a spinoff of Expedia), Ticketmaster, LendingTree, Interval Leisure Group, HSN and now Match Group. If you invested $1K in IAC in Aug 1995 when Mr. Diller began the business, you'd have ~$16K today. If you invested $1K in a fund that tracked the Nasdaq index, you'd have ~$4,8K today. Skeptics say that all of these spinoffs are nothing more than financial prestidigitation. These companies, said Mr. Diller, "are under the scrutiny of a set of shareholders only wanting to own that business. I think that's very healthy."
SUNTIMES – Nov 21 - Sam Yagan is the CEO of Match Group. The 38-year-old start-up ace, the son of Syrian immigrants, spoke openly about the crisis involving his parents' homeland. Born in Chicago, raised in Bourbonnais, the married father of three attended the Illinois Math & Science Academy, Harvard and Stanford Graduate School.
Q: Talk about your family’s history.
A: My parents were born in Syria and immigrated to the US. My dad came to pursue his education in the late '60s. He later went back home, got married, brought my mom in '75.
Q: What was your trajectory into tech start-ups?
A: I founded SparkNotes in 1999 with my two best friends from Harvard. Then, I started eDonkey, a media technology company, in 2002. I went to Stanford, then founded OkCupid in 2003. I co-founded Techstars Chicago. Each year, we take 10 start-ups, mentor them, help them grow. Now in our sixth year, our companies have raised ~$100M. In 2011, we sold OkCupid to Match Group.
Q: Your family is clearly an example of a successful immigrant story. What are your thoughts about calls for the U.S. to shut its borders to Syrian war refugees after the attacks in Paris?
A: I'm disappointed. We are a nation of immigrants.
Q: The civil war has gone on for more than four years in Syria. Have you had family affected?
A: I have cousins and other family members who have been displaced by the war. Thankfully, no one has been killed or injured. My parents are still thinking they're going to go back. My dream is just for peace.
SEEKING ALPHA – Nov 19 – After pricing its 33.3M share IPO at $12, Match Group opened at $13.50 and is now at $13.10, up 9.2%.
by Eric Jhonsa
See full article at Seeking Alpha
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
TECH CRUNCH – Nov 19 – Match has priced its IPO at $12 per share, raising $400M. The company will begin trading on the Nasdaq today under the ticker symbol 'MTCH.'
by Alex Wilhelm, Katie Roof & Matthew Lynley
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.