IAC increases stake in Tinder: report
(Reuters) - The shares of Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive Corp rose as much as 3 percent to $70.34 on Friday after it increased its stake in the popular dating app, Tinder, according to a Bloomberg report.
IAC bought another 10 percent of Tinder for $500 million from investor Chamath Palihapitiya, Bloomberg reported, adding that Tinder was now valued at $5 billion.
IAC Chief Executive Sam Yagan confirmed the transaction to Forbes, but said the valuation of $5 billion was "nowhere near the truth."
Palihapitiya tweeted on Friday: "My Tinder sale for $500M is inaccurate. I sold my stake but value was much less. Thx @samyagan for official IAC pos'n. #wishfulthinking"
A spokeswoman from IAC declined to comment.
IAC owns more than 50 percent of Tinder, but declined to give more details about its stake.
IAC's stock later trimmed its gains and closed at $68.82, up 0.6 percent.
Tinder has about 10 million users who signed up with their Facebook accounts. The app matches other users based on their geographic location.
(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler and Andre Grenon; )
