Tinder CEO Sean Rad Controversial Comment On Sodomy Causes Match To ‘Distance Itself’
Comments made by Sean Rad, the co-creator and chief executive officer of Tinder, with regard to “sodomy,” have been called into question by a number of media outlets and called “silly and unfortunate” by Match Group Chairman Gregory Blatt, according to CNBC.
Tinder is owned by Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH), which was spun-off from Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) in an offering that just began trading publicly yesterday. MTCH shares gained 22.8 percent to close at $14.74 in their first day of NASDAQ trading. Close to 27 million shares traded hands. Sean Rad is said to own about 10 percent of Match Group, giving him a net worth of at least several hundred million dollars.
Leading up to the spin-off, Sean Rad was interviewed by the Evening Standard. The article was published the day before the shares started trading, Wednesday, November 18.
“The article was not approved or condoned by, and the content of the article was not reviewed by, the company or any of its affiliates,” the filing with the SEC reads. Sean Rad “was not authorized to make statements on behalf of the company for purposes of the article.”
In the Evening Standard interview, on the eve of a public offering valuing Match Group for several billion dollars, the 29-year-old Rad disclosed that he lost his virginity when he was 17, and that he has slept with “20 women.”
Rad also disclosed incorrect information about the business, which in part forced Match Group to file with the SEC.
“Analysts believe the app, which launched in 2012, has around 80 million users worldwide and records 1.8 billion ‘swipes’ a day,” the Evening Standard article reads.
In reality, Tinder’s is thought to have “9.6 million daily active users.” Users are reported to “swipe” the profiles of “1.4 billion users” every day.
Additionally, the Tinder CEO, in the days leading up to his parent company’s multi-million dollar spin-off, described how he likes women who are an “intellectual challenge.” Sean Rad then went a step further.
“Apparently there’s a term for someone who gets turned on by intellectual stuff. You know, just talking. What’s the word? I want to say ‘sodomy’?” Sean Rad was quoted.
Rad’s handler apparently attempted to end the interview, and the interviewer, Charlotte Edwards, reports that she informed the CEO of the company valued at several hundred million dollars that “sodomy” is not defined as getting “turned on by intellectual stuff.”
Rad was reported to then look-up the term on his phone and exclaim, “What? No, not that. That’s definitely not me. Oh, my God.”
The Tinder CEO was also said to have made comments about doing “background research” on a Vanity Fair author, Nancy Jo Sales, after she had written an article describing Tinder as possible start to the “dating apocalypse.” Match Group felt the need to clarify that what Rad meant was that he “Googled” some of the articles Sales had written and thought that she had made some interesting points.
“He certainly had no one followed or anything like that,” Match Group Chairman Blatt was quoted. Match Group is reported to have come into existence 20 years ago and to employ 1,500 full time employees.
[Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Tinder]
