Filed by Tiga Acquisition
Corp.
pursuant to Rule 425 under the
Securities Act of 1933,
as amended, and deemed filed
pursuant to Rule 14a-12
under the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934
Subject Company: Tiga Acquisition
Corp.
Commission File No. 001-39714
Date: September 16, 2022
This filing relates to the proposed business combination
between Grindr Group LLC (“Grindr”) and Tiga Acquisition
Corp. (“Tiga”) pursuant to the terms of that certain
Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of May 9, 2022 (as the same
may be amended, the “Merger Agreement”).
THE FOLLOWING IS THE TEXT OF THE
INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE ARISON (INCOMING CEO OF GRINDR) BY BLOOMBERG
TECHNOLOGY WITH EMILY CHANG, DATED SEPTEMBER 16, 2022
Interview Transcript
Emily: The dating app
Grindr just announced a new CEO, George Arison, co-founder and
former CEO of the auto e-commerce marketplace, Shift. This fulfills
the pledge to appoint someone who identifies with the LGBTQ+
community in this top role, as the company prepares to go public.
George Arison joins us now for more on the big news. So, stepping
into a big role here George, but you have some experience with
obviously a car marketplace and on the board. What did you learn
behind the scenes that you think you bring to the table?
George: Thanks for
having me. Look, Grindr is an amazing company. I’ve built a company
and taken it public, but margins are always a challenge in the auto
business. With Grindr, margins are amazing. So that’s obviously a
very big difference. Grindr is a really awesome business, but more
importantly, it is a really awesome mission. You are serving a
community that’s been underserved, and that uses this product in a
dramatic way to connect. And that mission to me is super appealing
and I’m really excited to be a part of it. Obviously, Grindr has
been around for a long time, since 2009. The product actually
hasn’t really fundamentally changed in that time period. People
have used it the same way for a long time, but the features that it
offers have obviously expanded. It’s gone from just being about sex
and now more about dating and now its used in a lot of other ways,
and my goal as the CEO is going to be to continue to nurture this
incredible product and the community that it serves in the best way
it can.
Emily: Talk to
us a little bit more about how Grindr is used globally? Because I
think there is one impression that it is quote on quote just a
dating app, but it’s actually so much more.
George: Yea there are
so many other things people use it for. Travel is a massive feature
set that people use it for, and by the way, it’s all organic, it’s
not like Grindr’s built products that facilitate travel, but people
log into a city they might be visiting to and start talking to
people about where they can stay, what they should do, and where
they can go out to dinner and go out to have fun. So In a very
organic way, people use it for travel. Health information is
another massive feature in Grindr, with the monkeypox epidemic
right now. Grindr has been very active in helping our user base
understand that there is a problem, and where to get vaccines, how
to get them. There’s even a feature in the app that tells people
where to get vaccines. So people use Grindr in a ton of different
ways. One of the interesting things for me being on the board, the
past couple of months, we left one of the very challenging
countries to be operating in and to be gay in recently, because we
just didn’t feel comfortable and we heard so much feedback from
users in their country and NGOs in the country pleading with us to
come back. So the board was asked to decide should we go back or
not? I mean it’s like a life or death issue in some ways. On the
one hand, people want to use the product to connect and it is super
valuable. On the flipside, we know that the State uses the product
to try to find people who are gay. Which side do you kind of go on?
Do you deny people the product that’s really important to them or
do you allow them to have the product that risks their security?
Really tough issue. I won’t reveal the country that it’s in because
I don’t think it’s appropriate, but that kind of describes how
critical Grindr is to so many people and the amazing product that
it is for that community.
Emily: Now you’ve gone
through one SPAC process with Shift and I know you’re trying to get
Grindr over the finish line now, but how are you thinking about
that given pretty dreadful market dynamics out there and a tough
environment?
George: Yea, SPAC is
great in that kind of situation because it is a guaranteed way to
know how to get the transaction done and right you’re not dependent
on market conditions. Grindr’s partner for the SPAC transaction, is
a very strong SPAC. There’s a forward purchase agreement in the
transaction, which ensures there is no need for any capital to come
into the transaction and redemptions are not an issue.
Emily: But the last,
many many of the most recent SPAC’s haven’t done well.
George: Most SPAC’s
have not done well, no question. But there are about two dozen
SPACs in the last 12 months that are doing very well, and they
share one trait. They are all profitable businesses. So Grindr
falls into that bucket as well, it is a very profitable business
and no one is selling in this transaction. So all the current
owners of Grindr are going to roll over and continue holding the
business. So we feel pretty good about the transaction from that
perspective. The SPAC’s just a mechanism for getting the
transaction done so we can become a public company. I think the
outcome will be the same whether we had done a regular IPO or SPAC
transaction.
Emily: Ok. You are one
of very few openly gay CEO’s, certainly as it comes to public
companies. Is there a precedent that you want to set here or a
message that you want to send?
George: Yeah, I am
very fortunate. I think people should believe that anything is
possible. One of my core values as an operator is that impossible
things are possible. My whole life is almost an example of that,
where I was born in the Soviet Union, came to the U.S. as a young
teenager to go to prep school, and now, this is the second company
I am going to take public. Incredible things are achievable as long
as you work hard. For those people who are part of the LGBTQ
community, living in countries where they feel like they are being
marginalized or they can’t be out, things are going to get better
because that is the direction the world is heading into, kind of
every day, and we are really really fortunate to live in a country
where we can be ourselves and not be under threat all the
time.
Emily: How are you
thinking about monetization and boosting the opportunities that
Grindr has already explored, subscriptions and ads are of course
the moneymakers?
George: We make money
in two ways. We have ads in the product and we have subscriptions.
Our percentage of users who are paying users is actually not that
high. It’s about 6% versus Bumble, I think 9% and Match is at 18%.
So, we have a huge opportunity to grow the paid user base. One of
the ways we’re going to do that is by building more adjacent
features that people then want to pay for. Grindr has been behind
in that regard, it’s only recently started to monetize its
functionality and add new functionality. So for example, we just
recently launched Boost, which has been a very popular feature.
Doing more things like that I think will be really important and
then with ads obviously, there is a huge opportunity to have more
relevant ads. When we have ads that are relevant to our community,
they are actually very effective and they service the community
really well. For example, with health-related ads, and so my focus
will be to ensure that the ad quality is really good and it really
enables the community to use the product in a good way if they
don’t want to pay for it.
Emily: Alright -
George Arison, incoming CEO of Grindr, thanks so much for stopping
by. We’ll keep watching.
George: Thank you for
having me.
About Grindr
With roughly 11 million monthly active users in virtually
every country in the world in 2021, Grindr has grown to become a
fundamental part of the queer community since its launch in 2009.
The company continues to expand its ecosystem to enable gay, bi,
trans, and queer people to connect, express themselves, and
discover the world around them. Grindr is headquartered in West
Hollywood, California. The Grindr app is available on the App Store
and Google Play.
Forward Looking Statements
This document may contain a number of “forward-looking
statements.” Forward-looking statements include information
concerning Grindr’s possible or assumed future results of
operations, business strategies, competitive position, industry
environment, and potential growth opportunities, including any
potential benefits that may be realized as a result of new members
of management. These forward-looking statements are based on
Grindr’s management’s current expectations, estimates, projections
and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning
future events. When used in this press release, the words
“estimates,” “projected,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “forecasts,”
“plans,” “intends,” “believes,” “seeks,” “may,” “will,” “should,”
“future,” “propose” and variations of these words or similar
expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions)
are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future
performance, conditions or results, and involve a number of known
and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important
factors, many of which are outside Grindr’s management’s control,
that could cause actual results to differ materially from the
results discussed in the forward-looking statements. These risks,
uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors include, but
are not limited to: (a) the inability to complete the proposed
business combination due to the failure to obtain shareholder
approval or other conditions to closing; (b) the risk that the
proposed business combination disrupts current plans and operations
of Grindr; (c) the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of
the proposed business combination, which may be affected by, among
other things, competition, the ability of the combined company to
grow and manage growth profitably, maintain relationships with
customers and suppliers and retain its management and key
employees; (d) costs related to the proposed business combination;
(d) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (e) the possibility
that Grindr may be adversely affected by other economic, business
and/or competitive factors; and (f) the ability to implement
business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after the
completion of the proposed transaction, and identify and realize
additional opportunities.
The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should
carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and
uncertainties described in the “Risk Factors” section of the
registration statement on Form S-4 and other documents filed
by Tiga Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: TINV) from time to time with the
SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ
materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date
made. Except as required by law, Grindr undertakes no
obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements
to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this
release.
No Offer or Solicitation
This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the
solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, or a
solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale
of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer,
solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or
qualification under the securities laws of any such
jurisdiction.
For more information please
contact:
For Grindr Communications and
Investor Relations:
Patrick Lenihan
Patrick.Lenihan@grindr.com
Investors:
Ellipsis
Jeff Majtyka
IR@grindr.com
Media:
TrailRunner International
Lexi Schuchert
Press@grindr.com