THE VERGE - Aug 22 - Last week, a group of current and former Tinder employees, including co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, sued Match Group and IAC for $2B over allegations that IAC hid Tinder's potential for growth in an effort to avoid paying billions of dollars to the startup team. Tucked into the suit is also the claim that former IAC CEO Greg Blatt sexually harassed Tinder VP of marketing and communications Rosette Pambakian, and that Match allegedly merged Tinder into itself to eliminate stock options without telling any of the employees. Match has placed the four plaintiffs who still worked at Tinder on leave following the lawsuit's filing. An old Gawker article, published in March 2013, could potentially suggest that the alleged misconduct Pambakian seeks to expose had been ongoing. The piece, written by N. Michelle AuBuchon, recounts a story in which a man referred to as "Jim," who was the "former head of her department who had been appointed CEO of a major dating site," harassed an employee and then demeaned AuBuchon. But the current Tinder lawsuit isn't about sexual harassment - it's about money and stock options. Meanwhile, a source close to Tinder says that Rad actually sold a great deal of stock following the merger between Tinder and Match Group, and suggested that the co-founder didn't have much faith in the future of the dating app and that Match's valuation was accurate.
by Ashley Carman
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