Activist investor group Elliott Investment Management has swiped right on Match Group (MTCH), buying a near-$1 billion stake in the dating app operator, according to Wall Street Journal reports.
Yahoo Finance's Madison Mills joins the Live show from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to talk Match's performance — who owns Tinder, Hinge, and Match.com among other apps — while competing with Bumble (BMBL) in the dating service space.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
BRAD SMITH: But we've also been keeping a close eye on today's stock to watch. For that, let's go back to Maddie. Match Group getting a boost after the Wall Street Journal reporting activist investor Elliott building up a roughly $1 billion stake in the dating company. What do we know here?
MADISON MILLS: Yeah, this is definitely a stock that's in the green as of the market opened. Up about 9% so far in today's trade, and again, this is because of that $1 billion stake from Elliott Investment. Now Elliott has a track record of proven activist investment moves that have led them to turn company stocks around and they say that's exactly what they're trying to do with Match Group.
Now, I reached out to Elliott this morning. They said that they can't comment on these reports, but they did not deny this stake, so it could be interesting for investors to take a look at what happens moving forward, if this report is confirmed. It could be a buy the rumor, sell the news event on this name because again, Match really soaring in the market open here.
Just to give a little bit of context, Match owns Tinder, Hinge, they acquired the league earlier this year so they really have a stronghold over a lot of the dating apps. The only one they really don't have a strong hold over is Bumble which is their only big competitor in terms of the market. Now they've had a lot of issues over the past couple of years.
I think in the past seven years, they've had dozens of executive changes at the company. They've struggled to get the stock up. Their last earnings print was not good for them, seeing a lot of red in this name following their inability to keep margins, profit margins up and revenues up. They've tried things like offering an expensive membership plan for Tinder and they have not seen success in that offering.
So Elliott could be saying we can come in, we can make some executive changes, we can turn this stock around and hopefully get this dating app driven company in the green again, you guys.
