Barry Diller: Facebook is trying to "steal" Tinder's cofounder

May 31, 2022

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April 12, 2014

Barry Diller
What's the pressure from Facebook? Can they do anything realistically to harm us?

Greg Blatt
I don't think so directly. But their attempts to hire Sean away from us potentially indicate they believe something like Tinder could be replicated by them. I'd like to avoid that, though I don't know that FB itself makes it that much more likely to succeed than anyone else.

Barry Diller
Could SR actually go to Facebook and rip off Tinder?

Greg Blatt
Legally he might be able to try. We'd claim noncompete, he'd claim CA enforceability problems. Practically, everyone's trying to rip off Tinder. Its a very simple product. What they did amazingly was how they seeded it, instantly creating a brand. The question is whether that could be replicated, and whether FB could help.

Barry Diller
I wonder if I should bang MZ for stirring this up...

Greg Blatt
Thought about that. I wouldn't at this moment, though. Let's see how it goes Monday. May need to at some point, but I don't want to do anything that tips Sean in the other direction if he's falling our way right now.

Barry Diller
Fine, but at some point I'm going to tell him I think it's bad behavior to talk with me about how great Tinder is, and then try to steal the Founder.

[This document is from Sean Rad v. IAC/InterActiveCorp (2021).]

Original tweet

Previously: Barry Diller: "the deck crew on my boat ... said that Tinder has been a social godsend in more ways than browsing"

Previously: Former Match CEO: Barry Diller threatened to go after Tinder's cofounder "for everything that he has"