Match Group sues Tinder co-founder Sean Rad for $250M

Tinder’s corporate owner is suing Sean Rad, the hook-up app’s co-founder and ex-chief executive, for $250 million, accusing him of stealing company secrets before he was fired.

In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan state court, Match Group accuses Rad of “surreptitiously [copying] a large volume of documents belonging to his employers in order to advance his personal interests.”

Rad, Match claims, “deliberately flouted” security measures and violated his employment agreement by creating backups of his Tinder e-mail in order to forward sensitive materials to a personal e-mail address over the course of several years.

The e-mails contained “highly sensitive, nonpublic information concerning his employers’ business strategies and plans,” according to the filing.

The suit comes six months after Rad and other Tinder co-founders accused IAC, which owns a number of other dating services, including OkCupid and PlentyOfFish, of undervaluing Tinder during negotiations over stock options, effectively bilking them out of $2 billion.

In this week’s suit, Match notes that Rad cashed out $400 million worth of options — far more than he would have received had parent company execs known at the time of his alleged “illicit activities.”

Match also took a few swipes at the former face of Tinder, characterizing his tenure as “deeply troubled,” adding “his continued employment hung by a thread.”

“Rad lacked the organizational skills, judgment, and maturity to deal with varied and difficult business issues,” the suit reads.

Rad’s lawyer Orin Snyder called the action a “ridiculous countersuit,” noting his client’s employment contract allowed him to back up his e-mail.

“IAC and Match cheated Sean and the other founders of Tinder out of billions of dollars. Now, IAC and Match are attacking Sean for backing up his own work e-mail,” Snyder said.