IAC's Match.com spinoff fueled by singles looking for love
New Match would encompass Tinder, OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, Hinge and more
IAC is responsible for the explosive growth in online dating services, including Match.com and Tinder, but IAC is now looking to split from its highly popular love-finding apps.
In December 2019, the company agreed to spin off Match Group, forming two separate public companies called New IAC and New Match.
New Match would encompass many online dating sites outside of Tinder and Match, including OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, Hinge, Meetic, OurTime, Ship and Pairs.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IAC | IAC INC. | 47.16 | +0.21 | +0.45% |
| MTCH | MATCH GROUP INC. | 30.71 | -0.55 | -1.76% |
IAC CEO Joey Levin explained why now is the right time for the spinoff to FOX Business' Jack Otter.
"Right now, Match is in a great moment in its trajectory," Levin said on "Barron's Roundtable." "Match Group, in total, is growing very nicely. It's generating real cash flow. It can stand on its own."
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Levin noted this split is just one of the many times in the company's history a spinoff has happened. Levin told Otter the company will take a step back and ask if the businesses were separate, "do both of those end up in a better place?" If the answer is yes, then they make the move.
"One of the factors right now is how much Match has grown and grown to, in a great way, overshadow the rest of IAC," Levin admitted. "And we like that building process, so we get to focus on the small businesses again and start building again."
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In October 2019, IAC and Expedia Chairman Barry Diller told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo IAC has been, historically, "anti-conglomerate" in that the company focuses on building up businesses and then spins them off.
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"So rather than a holding company like Berkshire or someplace else, we, basically, either buy, build, invent, whatever businesses [and] when they get to a sufficient size where they, in a sense, deserve independence, we spin them out to the shareholders so that they can go on with their own, independent life and not be part of some big, mega-company," Diller said on "Mornings With Maria."
In November 2015, IAC finished Match Group Inc.'s initial public offering at the IPO price of $12 a share, according to Forbes.