Last week, Match Group and its parent company IAC were sued by current and former employees of Tinder, among whom are co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen. The lawsuit includes allegations that the parent company withheld information about Tinder’s potential growth to avoid paying billions of dollars to the start-up team.
There are additional allegations within the lawsuit. One is in the form of a sexual harassment claim against IAC CEO Greg Blatt, who became the CEO of Tinder after Sean Rad. Tinder vice president of marketing and communications Rosette Pambakian, a plaintiff in the case, alleges that Blatt forced himself onto her after a company holiday party. The other claim in the lawsuit is that Match Group merged Tinder into itself to remove stock options from the picture without informing its employees.
After the lawsuit’s filing, Match placed four of its current employees on leave, and a memo written by Pambakian was leaked to Business Insider and Fortune. In her memo, Pambakian writes that she joined the lawsuit to expose the terrible practices she witnessed from Match Group, including “covering up sexual misconduct by senior executives and depriving talented employees of hard-earned compensation.”
Additional Reading:
The Tinder Lawsuit is Going to Get Nasty, The Verge (August 22, 2018)
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
