Match settles dispute with Anson Funds, adds new director to board

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

(Reuters) – Online dating company Match Group will add a consumer-technology executive to its board and lay the groundwork for all directors to stand for election annually, ending a dispute with shareholder Anson Funds.

The company, valued at $7.6 billion, said on Tuesday that Kelly Campbell, the former president of NBCUniversal’s Peacock, will become a director.

Anson, which owned roughly 0.6% of Match at the end of December, according to a regulatory filing, was pushing to elect three directors to shake up what it called an outdated and insular board.

The two sides have now settled on an information sharing agreement that will end a potentially disruptive fight for the company and possibly move closer to Anson’s goals for management to rethink capital allocation, cut costs and consider a strategic review of its MG Asia business.

Match is the parent company of dating sites Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid and has seen its stock price tumble nearly 70% over the last five years.

As part of the agreement, the company said in a regulatory filing that board member Alan Spoon, whose term expires at the annual meeting, will not stand for re-election.

Anson and other investors had also criticized Match’s practice of having only a certain number of directors stand for election annually, a practice that has become a flash point in governance circles because shareholders generally want all board members to stand for election annually.

“The Board is committed to strong corporate governance practices,” Match said in a statement, laying the groundwork for a shift to annual elections.

Match joins a growing list of companies that have found common ground with critical investors at a time when volatile markets and uncertain policy directives from the White House are forcing them to pay even closer attention to their business, clients and shareholders.

Earlier this week, restaurant chain Portillo’s settled a dispute with Engaged Capital, which had nominated two directors to the company’s board.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru. Editing by Anil D’Silva and Mark Potter)