Sam Boughedda

Investing.com — Shares of Match Group Inc (NASDAQ:) fell more than 11% early Wednesday trading following the release of earnings by the company and news that Shar Dubey, its chief executive, will be stepping down.

The company reported a diluted share of $0.60 on revenues of $798.63 millions after Tuesday’s close. This beat the expectations of analysts polled at Investing.com of $0.54 and $796.04million.

The number of payers increased by 13% to 16.3million, an increase from 14.4 million during the previous-year quarter. Tinder’s direct revenues increased 18%, and all brands combined grew their direct revenue by 22% annually.

The company reported that earnings and revenues beats were not achieved despite the fact that its business was affected by the Ukraine-Russian war, currency headwinds and slow recovery of COVID.

We estimate that our total revenue impact will be approximately $10,000,000 per quarter. This is primarily Tinder. Match stated that this includes our revenues in Russia and Ukraine as well as other countries nearby.

Later, they added that the COVID recovery was gaining momentum but slower than we would all like. We have seen a lot of new users adopt our services because of the endless COVID waves.

Dubey, Match Group CEO, will resign, but he will remain as director and advisor. Bernard Kim, President of Zynga, will take over as chief executive officer effective May 31,

Match also approved a buyback up to 12.5 millions of its outstanding shares.

The company anticipates that Q2 revenues will be $800m to $810m, which represents 13%-14% growth year-over-year. Match explained that the company’s Q2 revenue is likely to reflect the adverse macroeconomic conditions. The year-over-2018 growth rate was negatively affected by FX effects at approximately five points and the War in Ukraine at about one.