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00:12 GMT, November 11, 2015
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08:40 GMT, November 11, 2015Match Group Inc., owner of Tinder, Match.com and OkCupid, is preparing an initial public offering.
According to a regulatory filing Monday, it will price its IPO of roughly 33.3 million shares between $12 and $14 per share – valuing the company at around $3 billion. Underwriters will have the option to buy up to 5 million additional shares.
The dating company plans to raise as much as $466.2 million.
Match Group Inc will be listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker symbol “MTCH”.
Match’s parent company is IAC/InterActiveCorp, which also owns brands such as About.com, Ask.com, Dictionary.com and Investopedia. IAC wants to cash in on the booming online dating market. In addition, Match intends to use all of the net proceeds of the offering to repay related-party indebtedness owed to IAC.
A study conducted by Pew Research Center found that approximately 31 million people in the US have used either a dating site or app.
IAC will own 86% of Match’s shares outstanding. The dating company accounted for almost a third of IAC revenue in the third quarter.
Match has a portfolio of nearly 40 brands and boasts 59 million active monthly users, with 4.7 million paid.
According to Match’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it reported $888.3 million in revenue last year – up 11% from the year before.
The filing also revealed that the company plans on generating more revenue from its online dating properties.
It intends to “meaningfully increase” the number of ads it sells on Tinder, an app which it described as a “very attractive platform for advertisers” because of “strong user engagement”, with the average user spending 35 minutes on the app daily.
In addition to its dating business, Match Group also operates The Princeton Review, which provides a variety of test preparation, academic tutoring and college counseling services.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Allen & Company LLC and BofA Merrill Lynch are acting as the lead bookrunning managers, and Deutsche Bank Securities, BMO Capital Markets, Barclays and BNP PARIBAS are acting as bookrunners for the offering.