Los Angeles-based tech executive Bernard Kim has been named the new CEO of Match Group, the dating app conglomerate that owns popular platforms like Tinder and Hinge.
Kim, currently the president of mobile video game developer Zynga, will replace outgoing Match Group CEO Shar Dubey on May 31. Dubey will remain with Dallas-based Match Group as an advisor and board director.
Kim—whose LinkedIn and Twitter pages identify him as based in Manhattan Beach—has continued to live and work in Los Angeles while serving as San Francisco-based Zynga’s president. A Match Group spokesperson told dot.LA that Kim “will stay in L.A. and serve as CEO from our L.A. office.”
Kim joined Zynga in 2016 after nearly 10 years as Electronic Arts’ senior vice president of mobile publishing. While at Zynga, he pushed an ambitious acquisition strategy and helped lead the gaming company to unprecedented growth during the pandemic.
Match Group talked up Kim’s credentials in a press release Tuesday, saying he “helped quadruple Zynga’s market cap” during his six years with the company. Zynga is now in the midst of being acquired by gaming giant Take-Two Interactive in a deal valued at $12.7 billion.
According to a May 3 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Kim will earn an annual base salary of $1 million, plus millions more in stock grants, as Match Group’s CEO.
Besides West Hollywood-based Tinder, Match Group’s portfolio of dating services includes Hinge, Match.com, OkCupid and PlentyOfFish. In its first quarter earnings report on Tuesday, the publicly traded company said it was approaching 100 million total monthly active users across all of its apps. Match Group shares were down 2% Tuesday, to $79.02, and have slid 40% since the start of the year.
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