By : Match Group is laying off 8% of its workforce
Match Group Inc. plans to cut its employee base by 8%, the online-dating company disclosed on its earnings call Wednesday.
Chief Financial Officer Gary Swidler told investors that Match
MTCH,
-10.12%
has already reduced roles in the U.S., while the “process is ongoing” internationally.
“Our cost savings initiatives are focused on rightsizing headcount and reducing overhead costs, including office expenses and professional fees,” Swidler said, according to a transcript provided by Sentieo/AlphaSense.
Match expects to see about $6 million in severance and related costs as a result of the cost-cutting moves this year. The company is “constricting our hiring really to Hinge and a couple of other strong growth businesses at this point,” Swidler said.
Shares of Match, the online-dating company that includes Tinder and Hinge among its brands, were falling more than 8% in midday trading Wednesday. Match delivered a disappointing outlook alongside its fourth-quarter report Tuesday afternoon while acknowledging that at least the first half of 2023 could be “challenging.”
Read more: Match sees ‘challenging’ first half ahead but says Hinge is ‘brightest spot’ in its lineup
Executives deemed Hinge “the brightest spot in our portfolio” in their shareholder letter. While Match plans to boost marketing spending for Tinder and Hinge, it disclosed that it planned to cut back marketing costs at most of its other dating brands.
The Tinder marketing push comes as the company looks to better define the brand’s identity.
“Frankly, this is an area we need to make more investment to drive a brand story that better reflects all the positive outcomes that Tinder is responsible for,” Chief Executive Bernard Kim said on the earnings call. “There has actually never been a Tinder global brand campaign before, and it’s been years since we’ve actually had a defined marketing campaign in general.”
The team at Tinder “had some really provocative and creative ideas, and this campaign will celebrate all of the relationship possibilities that Tinder creates every single day,” Kim continued.
Evercore ISI analyst Shweta Khajuria wrote after the report that Match is “an execution story and if Tinder works, the stock works.”
