By Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of founders, executives and early employees of popular dating app Tinder on Tuesday sued IAC/InterActiveCorp <IAC.O>, claiming the parent company deliberately undervalued Tinder to avoid paying them billions of dollars.
The lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan stated that IAC and its subsidiary Match Group Inc <MTCH.O> deliberately prevented the plaintiffs from cashing in stock options they could exercise and sell to IAC. They are seeking damages of not less than $2 billion (1.6 billion pounds).
IAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Tinder founders Sean Rad, Justin Mateen and Jonathan Badeen and several executives and employees.
IAC owns over 80 percent of Match, which owns Tinder.
IAC shares dipped 0.5 percent to $190.25.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
