Cupid misses
Heartache at Match.com
Good morning, romance researchers. This is your Stock Market Rundown for February 14th, 2024. Thanks for making a date with me today. Let’s get going:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: ROMANCE RECESSION
If you’re single and ready to mingle, you might have profiles up on Match.com, Tinder, and Hinge, just to cover all your bases. Maybe even OurTime, the dating website for seniors—age is only a number, right?
What you might not realize is that all those platforms are owned by the same company: Match Group. If you’re single and online, you’ve probably paid for a Match-owned site. The company enjoys a near-monopoly on the online dating market, serving people looking for love in 40 languages.
Match.com was founded in 1995 by an eccentric entrepreneur named Gary Kremen, and later acquired in 1999 for $50 million by internet conglomerate IAC. Kremen only got $50,000 for his stake in Match—peanuts, considering how many weddings he can claim responsibility for.
Match’s owners went on an acquisition spree, rolling up dating sites from OkCupid to The League, with the goal of creating a monopoly in internet dating. Their addressable market has been booming: 40% of romantic relationships in the US now start online.
Match spun off from IAC in 2020, and during the pandemic, Match Group’s stock was flying. (Other than the internet, the only way to meet a special someone during the pandemic was if they delivered your UberEats.)Â
But since the pandemic ended, many soulmate seekers have gotten the ick from Match. Growth has slowed, and the stock is down 80% from its peak. Now, activist investors are buying up stakes, betting some strategic changes can help Match win back the hearts of users who’ve ghosted its apps.
Biggest problem Match has to fix? Chaos in the C-suite. The company has had seven CEOs since 2012. Somebody should tell the company’s board: it’s fun to play the field, but eventually you should find a CEO you can enjoy a long-term committed relationship with.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
Fox, ESPN, and Warner Brothers are teaming up to launch a sports streaming service. This is like the Powerpuff Girls, but instead of fighting crime, they’re fighting to get people under 40 with no cable to watch sports.
Apple is building prototypes of foldable phones. Finally, I’ll have that satisfaction of snapping a phone shut at the end of a conversation, just like I did with my Motorola Razr before it fell out my back pocket into a toilet.
OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, are developing software that can take over your computer and handle web-based tasks. This isn’t going to replace my intern, Braden, unless it can also pick up my dry cleaning and call Delta to change my flight.
In a rare loss for the American eater, PepsiCo reported a drop in quarterly sales. Stretched household budgets have some consumers cutting back on potato-chip purchasing frequency. They’ll be back… nobody wants to eat carrot sticks forever.
That’s it for today, my friends; catch you back here at the usual time tomorrow morning. Yours in capitalism, The Axe