Greg Blatt Emails Leaked Ahead of Tinder Founders Trial

Leaked emails show that former Tinder CEO Greg Blatt potentially valued the dating app as high as $11.75 billion, just one year before its founders and early employees were paid out on their stock options based on a $3 billion valuation.

This new information has been made public just before the Tinder founder vs Match Group and IAC lawsuit goes to trial on 8th November.

Orin Snyder, lawyer for the plaintiffs, presented the emails and explained they were what the whole case was based around.

Blatt sent emails to other members of the executive team in January 2016 while trying to recruit a new head of engineering. The candidate in question had already received lucrative offers from Facebook and Uber.

The CEO attached presentation slides that put Tinder’s valuation in the range of $7.05 billion and $11.75 billion. The figures appear to have been adjusted based on different levels of potential growth for the following two years.

However, lawyers for the defence say that the slides were based on hypothetical growth numbers and that they had not been met by the time the third-part valuation was made the following year.

Match Group’s Chief Communication Officer Justine Sacco told the Daily Mail: “This baseless lawsuit has no more merit today than it did years ago when it was filed. We are very pleased that the Court has already dismissed many of the bogus allegations made by Sean Rad and the witnesses who got paid under the litigation funding agreement.

“Sean Rad bet against Tinder, and then watched from the sidelines as Match’s stock increased. He cannot unwind that gamble now simply because he regrets it. We look forward to finally having our day in court.”

Sexual misconduct allegations against Blatt were prevented from being included in the trial after the judge ruled that was not relevant.

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