Tinder owner settles down with founders for hundreds of millions
Photo: ANP
The current owner of Tinder will pay $441 million (€390 million) to the dating app’s founders. This puts an end to the dispute over the valuation of stock options. This has been the subject of a legal battle in the United States since 2018.
The founders claimed that Match Group, the current owner of Tinder, and then-parent company InterActiveCorp (IAC) underestimated Tinder based on false numbers. Match and IAC value the app at $3 billion in 2017, when the company would have been worth more than four times that amount. The founders and their early employees had options on about 20 percent of Tinder’s stock.
Tinder was founded in 2012 and now has over 10 million users. They can swipe through potential romantic matches and then swipe left or right to show their interest.
Since then, Match Group has been completely separated from the IAC. The company also owns dating platforms such as Hinge, Meetic, and OkCupid.
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