Activist Investor Takes $1B Stake in Tinder’s Parent Company
Match Group's shares surged over 15% after reports revealed that Elliot Management amassed a $1 billion stake in the company.
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Elliot Investment Management built a significant stake in Tinder’s parent company Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH). The action represents Elliot’s wider activist effort to help Match Group improve its financial and stock performance. The company’s stock is trading at $42.90 in the premarket at the time of writing, a 13.22% gain.
Elliot Management Begins Activist Campaign in Match Group
Activist investor Elliot Investment Management has accumulated a significant stake in Match Group, the parent company of some of the biggest online dating platforms.
According to a report by WSJ, the firm amassed a roughly $1 billion position in Match Group, a part of its broader plan to help the company rejuvenate its batter stock price. Though the activist investor is poised to discuss the future steps with Match, its specific demands remain unknown.
In November, Match’s Q3 earnings results revealed a continued decline in payers on the Tinder app, the group’s largest online dating platform. Moreover, the company forecast that the decline was expected to deepen this quarter due to price increases it began introducing earlier in 2023. Besides Tinder, Match Group also owns other popular dating apps, including Hinge, OkCupid, and Meetic.
The move represents Elliot’s latest activist investing effort. The hedge fund is known for taking on technology and other companies and forcing significant changes, including sales. The investment management firm pursued similar campaigns at Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) and Pinterest (NYSE: PINS). Since reaching a deal with Elliot, Pinterest’s stock price surged by more than 60%. Other stocks recently targeted by the firm include Crown Castle, Phillips 66, and Goodyear Tire & Rubber.
Match Group’s Stock Losses and Consensus Forecast
Following the reports of Ellitot’s stake, shares of Match Group soared over 13% in premarket trading Tuesday.
The company lost roughly 12% of its stock value in 2023, bringing its valuation down to $10.30 billion. The shares plummeted around 80% since surging to around $170 per share during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Street Insider, the consensus 12-month price target for Match Group’s stock is currently at $47.14, implying a potential upside of 24.4% from the latest closing price. This projection is based on the price targets issued by analysts in the past 12 months.
Do you expect Elliot Management to help Match Group boost its stock price after recent losses? Let us know in the comments below.
Tim Fries
Tim Fries is the cofounder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate on the investment team at RW Baird's US Private Equity division, and is also the co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.
