Finances

Months after going public with its intention to spin off Match Group, IAC has entered into a definitive agreement providing for the full separation of Match Group from IAC’s remaining businesses. The transaction will result in IAC and Match Group (which includes dating sites like Match, Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge) becoming two independent public companies.

"We've long said IAC is the 'anti-conglomerate' – we're not empire builders. We've always separated out our businesses as they've grown in scale and maturity and soon Match Group, as the seventh spin-off, will join an impressive group of IAC progeny collectively worth $58 billion today," said Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC.

Image: Business Wire

Spark Networks announced that Eric Eichmann will take over as CEO of Spark Networks, replacing Jeronimo Folgueira.

“I could not be more excited to join Spark at this time,” Eichmann said in a statement, published in Yahoo! Finance News. “Spark has a tremendous brand portfolio to help people find love across the globe…I look forward to working with the great team at Spark and leading the next chapter of its development.”

Dating.com Group is expanding its suite of dating apps by acquiring Dil Mil, a San Francisco-based dating app that is popular among ex-pats from India and South Asian countries, according to Tech Crunch.

South Asian ex-pats are less interested in arranged marriages, and have turned to dating apps to help find love in the U.S. However, most popular American dating apps like Tinder and OkCupid aren’t culturally appealing to this group of daters, who are more conservative and traditional in their approach to dating.

The Meet Group, a leading provider of mobile apps and services with a focus on livestreaming, has released financial results for its third quarter of 2019. The Meet Group’s portfolio of dating and social networking brands includes MeetMe, LOVOO, Skout, Tagged and Growlr.

For the third quarter 2019, The Meet Group reported the following financial highlights:

• Total revenue of $52.6 million, up 15% from the prior year quarter
• GAAP net income of $3 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, compared to a GAAP net income of $1.3 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the prior year quarter
• Adjusted EBITDA of $11 million, compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $8.7 million in the prior year quarter
• Non-GAAP net income of $10.1 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, compared to $7.6 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, in the prior year quarter

Shares of Match Group fell 15 percent after the company announced it will miss revenue goals for the fourth quarter. Shares of IAC also fell by 11 percent, according to Reuters.

The company expects fourth quarter revenue to be between $545 and $555 million, short of the $559.3 million goal according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

This news comes on the heels of a complaint filed by the U.S. Federal Trading Commission that Match Group offered fake profiles to entice customers to purchase paid subscriptions to its services, among other “deceptive and unfair practices,” as said in the lawsuit. Match Group is also facing legal entanglements with former Tinder employees, including founder Sean Rad, who said the company cheated him out of rightful payment after undervaluing his stock options.

Tinder’s hit interactive series Swipe Night proved to be a wildly successful marketing strategy. As a result, the popular dating app will be debuting the series internationally in February 2020.

According to The Daily Dot, Tinder users have been “flooding” social media during and after the game (which can be seen from 6pm – midnight every Sunday), comparing their choices and discussing what happened. Tinder has also revealed that they’ve seen a “significant uptick” in user engagement since the series debuted. CNN Business reported that total matches on the app rose 26 percent on Sunday nights. Messages between users also rose 12 percent.

As a result, Tinder decided to take the series worldwide. It debuted in the U.S.