Tinder Founders are Suing the IAC for Billions

Tinder founders as well as current employees and early employees are accusing the IAC of robbing them of their stock options.

The plaintiffs are suing the IAC for billions of dollars and have filed suit Tuesday against the dating app’s owner IAC and its subsidiary Match Group. The plaintiffs are asking for billions of dollars of damages on claims that IAC and Match “robbed Tinder employees by manipulating financial information, undermining Tinder’s valuation and unlawfully stripping away their Tinder stock options.”

The plaintiffs, who filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, include Tinder’s founders Sean Rad, Justin Mateen and Jonathan Badeen, and three current senior executives.

“This is an open-and-shut case. The defendants made contractual promises to recruit and retain the men and women who built Tinder, said Orin Snyder, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

“We were always concerned about IAC’s reputation for ignoring their contractual commitments and acting like the rules don’t apply to them,” said Rad, Tinder’s first CEO.

“But we never imagined the lengths they would go to cheat all the people who built Tinder. The Tinder team – especially the plaintiffs who are currently senior leaders at the company – have shown tremendous strength in exposing IAC/Match’s systematic violation of employees’ rights.”

IAC and Match Group issued their own statement:

“The allegations in the complaint are meritless, and IAC and Match Group intend to vigorously defend against them,” the companies said. “Since Tinder’s inception, Match Group has paid out in excess of a billion dollars in equity compensation to Tinder’s founders and employees. With respect to the matters alleged in the complaint, the facts are simple: Match Group and the plaintiffs went through a rigorous, contractually – defined valuation process involving two independent global investment banks, and Mr. Rad and his merry band of plaintiffs did not like the outcome.”

“Mr. Rad (who was dismissed from the Company a year ago) and Mr. Mateen (who has not been with the Company in years) may not like the fact that Tinder has experienced enormous success following their respective departures, but sour grapes alone do not a lawsuit make. Mr. Rad has a rich history of outlandish public statements, and this lawsuit contains just another series of them. We look forward to defending our position in court.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH) and have not been compensated for this article.