Tinder founders sue Match Group and IAC seeking at least $2 billion in damages

Sean
Rad, speaking at Advertising Week Europe in London, 20 April
2016.
Advertising Week
Europe

A group of early Tinder employees, including cofounders Sean Rad
and Jonathan Badeen, announced on Tuesday that they filed a
lawsuit against InterActiveCorp and Match Group, the owners of
Tinder.

They’re alleging that IAC undervalued Tinder, and used a lowball
valuation based on false information to reduce the value of stock
options that early employees and founders held.

The Tinder team received written contracts in 2014 outlining
stock options as well as four dates they could exercise them,
according to Tuesday’s complaint. But they allege that ahead of
the first exercise date, in May 2017, IAC valued Tinder at $3
billion, and merged it with Tinder, which “stripped away” the
team’s options in the fast-growing dating app. 

The plaintiffs are seeking no less than $2 billion. 

Tinder operates independently on a day-to-day basis from IAC
and Match, according to the plaintiffs, and it’s based in Los
Angeles. Business Insider has reached out to Match Group for
comment on the lawsuit and its allegations.

Here’s the full complaint: 

Developing…