Tinder Co-Founder Sues Parent Company for Not Paying Billions of Dollars
Sean Rad, Tinder’s co-founder, is currently in a $2 billion lawsuit against Tinder’s parent company, Match Group.
Rad alleges that Match Group and IAC deliberately undervalued Tinder in order to avoid paying billions of dollars in stocks to the initial Tinder team.
In a recent order, New York Supreme Court judge Saliann Scarpulla rejected IAC’s motion to dismiss the case, allowing Rad and his co-plaintiffs to pursue the case.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer Orin Snyder noted: “We are pleased by the Court’s ruling denying IAC/Match’s motion to dismiss and paving the way for this case to go to trial. IAC/Match robbed the Tinder founders and early employees and will now be held accountable by a jury for their multi-billion dollar scheme.”
The majority of IAC’s arguments in the hopes of dismissing the case focus on the timing of the case, not the actual claims. They argued that too much time had passed between when Tinder was originally valued and this current lawsuit.
The plaintiffs argue that the original valuation was a fraud, so that the parent company could save billions.
The judge rejected IAC’s claim, allowing the plaintiffs — Rad, Gareth Johnson, Paul Cafardo and Ryan Ogle — to pursue damages caused by IAC’s promised future valuation events that didn’t occur due to Tinder merging into Match.
Match spokeswoman Justine Sacco noted: “This baseless lawsuit has no more merit today than it did a year ago when it was filed. We’re pleased the court dismissed some of these bogus claims and look forward to defeating the rest of them, both on appeal and in the trial court.”
The case is moving closer to trial, as the judge gave IAC 30 days to file an answer to the complaint. However, Match has said they will appeal.
