When Tinder chief executive Sean Rad gave an interview in which he confused the word “sodomy” with the word “sapiosexual” (a term for only being attracted to intelligent people), he probably thought that was the worst thing that would come out of speaking to the Evening Standard newspaper.
Unfortunately, Rad was speaking immediately before Tinder’s parent company Match.com went public, launching on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York. And in the runup to an initial public offering, a US company is bound by strict requirements over what information they can communicate to the public.
As a result, Match Group, Inc. has had to file a new document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission disowning Rad’s interview.
The document reads, in part:
The article was not approved or condoned by, and the content of the article was not reviewed by, the Company or any of its affiliates. Mr Rad is not a director or executive officer of the Company and was not authorised to make statements on behalf of the Company for purposes of the article.
Translation from legalese: JUST STOP TALKING, SEAN.
The biggest issue is that the article quotes estimated figures for Tinder’s userbase which differ from those given in its prospectus. Nonetheless, the company is now required to enter the entire article onto the record, to ensure potential investors are aware of the statements contained therein.
Which is to say that the sentence “His face creases the effort of trying to remember. ‘I want to say ‘sodomy’?’” is now an official part of Match.com’s $2.9bn initial public offering. Awkward.
