MILAN – It certainly attracted the interest of many in search of romantic adventures, but it also seems to have some effect on hedge funds. Let’s talk about Tinder, a social network for romantic encounters, or the Match group, to which Tinder itself belongs. Yesterday it spread – gone The Wall Street Journal – the message that the fund Elliott Investment Management (which in Italy we know from Tim to Milan) has built an important position in Match group, with the aim – typical of “activists” – to get the online dating site to revive its share price. There is talk of roughly $1 billion invested in platforms that include not only Tinder, but also Hinge and more.
Elliott seems to want to start a real turnaround for the company. On the other hand, its market capitalization — around $10 billion — is now a fraction of what it achieved at the height of the boom called the pandemic Covidwhich grabbed all the headlines in the internet and digital world: it reached a value of more than 40 billion dollars.
Effect on Wall Street it was immediate, Match shares returned +3% Tuesday night against the Dow, which fell 0.4% as it awaited inflation data. “Our team regularly engages with investors and will continue to work to create great experiences for our users and value for our shareholders,” the spokesperson said, without elaborating.
The financial newspaper recalls that Tinder is the largest dating site for men in the world, with revenues of 1.8 billion dollars in 2022 and +9% from the year before. Hinge’s growth was more lively, registering +44%. Recently, however, the stock has been weighed down more heavily by analysts who point the finger at Tinder’s loss of momentum. Especially in recent quarters, the number of “paid” users has decreased, also due to price increases, which do not seem to have produced the desired results.