Barry Diller denies that social media has robbed the founders of Tinder for $ 2bn

Barry Diller on Monday denied allegations that his media empire was in the habit of cheating on businessmen as he stood up to defend allegations that the IAC had defrauded the founders of a Tinder dating program for $ 2bn.

“The only thing we want is [valuations] to be fair. . . If we do not trust our employees, we will not have them, “said Diller, a former Hollywood executive who became an online retailer supporting companies such as Expedia and TripAdvisor.

IAC’s most successful firm, Tinder, is now embroiled in a bitter feud with six of its founders, including Sean Rad, who sued Diller’s company in New York’s lower court for lowering the 2017 purchase price.

At the time, Tinder was valued at $ 3bn by independent banks, a number of startups – who owned about 20 percent of the company – today argue that it was $ 10bn less than its value at the time.

Diller, 79, admitted to having a little daily supervision on Tinder, testifying that he recalled that he had met Rad only once and that he was unaware of the complexity of the Tinder founders’ agreement with the IAC on their finances.

When asked about how Tinder performed in 2016 and 2017, Diller admitted that he knew a lot about subscriptions – “at the top of the list” as he mentioned – which he said showed the size of the dating program was declining. Rad’s lawyers say other metrics, such as money, confirm that Tinder is still on the rise even though Diller said he did not follow the figures.

Rad’s lawyers pressured Diller over Greg Blatt, a former IAC lawyer and senior who replaced Rad as Tinder’s head just before the 2017 census. The IAC argues that Blatt was chosen to save Tinder from Rad’s failed leadership.

Diller said Blatt was “very bright, hardworking, enthusiastic”. When asked if Blatt was a troublemaker, Diller replied: “He is very passionate, and very playful. He is a good man at heart. He did it on purpose. Some may be scared. He has some power. ”

Diller’s appearance in a New York courtroom where the trial took place provided a glimpse of the life of one of the world’s most famous celebrities.

In 2014 before the conflict between Rad and the IAC started, Diller sent an email to Rad writing “… And speaking today with one of my co-workers – he said Tinder has become a god of groups in more ways than browsing. now in the Caribbean. ”

When asked about what he was doing in 2016 and 2017 – when Tinder’s price calculation was in progress – Diller mentioned his leadership at Coca-Cola and The Washington Post and his efforts to build a park, now known as. Little Island, on the Hudson River near the IAC headquarters.

Rad’s lawyers shared the 2015 emails between Diller and Jack Welch, General Electric’s chief executive who was a paid consultant at IAC. In an email, Welch called Blatt a “cancer”, a review that Diller testified Monday disagreed with.

The return and future between Rad’s lawyer, Orin Snyder, and Diller was difficult at times and at one point Judge Joel Cohen requested a “slight decrease”. Lawyers for each side repeatedly returned to the judge’s chambers to challenge the sheer number of questions, leaving Diller alone to testify until his return. Diller once laughed, “it would be nice if we all got up and left”.

“Tinder has been in turmoil since Sean Rad was a bad leader,” IAC said Monday. “Critics are wasting judges’ time by calling witnesses like Diller – who had nothing to do with Tinder’s calculations – because they want to be bigger than the evidence.”