Is Tinder Worth More than IAC?

Using CB Insights company and valuation multiple data, we took a look at the price/user valuation multiples of 8 consumer tech companies including Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp to see what Tinder might be worth if it was a stand-alone private company.  Is the hot matchmaking map, which just snagged Benchmark‘s Matt Cohler for its board and which just demoted its CEO, potentially worth more than parent company IAC (NASDAQ: IACI, Mkt Cap: $5.53B)?

We looked at the valuation multiples of consumer tech companies which have exited as well as still private companies where our technology picked up on real or rumored figures.  As shown below, the average price to user (P/U) multiple across this group of consumer tech companies stands at 51.7x, with Viber at the low end at 9x and Twitter at the high end at 103x after its IPO day jump.

Based on these multiples, Tinder which is reported to have 18 million active users would be valued at around $1.85B which represents about 34% of IAC’s value using the highest end of recent consumer tech price to user (P/U) multiples.

At the average P/U multiple, Tinder’s implied valuation would drop to about $932M. But what if we multiply the consumer tech P/U multiples by 50 million active users – a figure Tinder is reportedly on track to hit if growth continues at its current rate?

This is where things get more interesting.

At the highest P/U multiple, Tinder would be valued at $5.15B – 93% of IAC’s current market cap. At the average of the multiples, Tinder’s implied valuation would hit $2.59B which is 47% of its parent company.

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