By HOLLY SANDERS
June 15, 2004 -- The battle over the online dating business got a lot more
personal yesterday, when the chief executive of TrueBeginnings, an upstart
site, accused much larger rival Match.com of using strong-arm tactics.
In a full-page ad that ran in the Wall Street Journal, Herb Vest, the CEO
of TrueBeginnings, attacked Barry Diller, whose InterActiveCorp controls
Match.com, for taking legal action against six of his employees.
Vest, a self-made Texas millionaire, claims that Diller subpoenaed the
TrueBeginnings workers, who were all at one time employed by Match.com, to
investigate claims including breach of contract, unfair competition and
disclosure of trade secrets.
In a letter headlined "What is Barry Diller Afraid Of?," Vest called the
allegations "ridiculous" and said he will foot the legal bills for his
employees, one of whom he said is pregnant.
"Mr. Diller, I will not allow you to intimidate the employees of
TrueBeginnings," Vest wrote. "To get to them, you must, first, come through
me."
A spokeswoman for Match.com said the company wouldn't comment on pending
legal matters.
The public spat underscores the intense competition in the online dating
business. While Match.com is still the largest of the sites, it faces growing
competition from a crowded field of upstarts -- Nerve.com, DreamMates, The
Right Stuff, eHarmony and eCrush, to name a few -- all seeking to profit from
matchmaking.
In April, Match.com drew 4.4 million visitors, according to ComScore Media
Metrix. Including distribution deals with AOL and MSN, the site attracted
almost 9.3 million visitors. In comparison, TrueBeginnings, which started
about six months ago, drew 645,000 visitors.
TrueBeginnings occupies a small, but growing niche of dating services
built on personality tests. It professes to be the first site devoted to
"safer dating" by offering criminal background checks and the ability to block
users based on categories such as age and ethnicity.
The service also reflects Vest's personal crusade for a "divorce-free
America" by barring married people from the site and threatening to prosecute
those who lie about their single status. Vest, 59, remarried in October after
his first marriage ended in divorce.
He denies that the full-page ad, which cost about $200,000 based on
current ad rates, was an effort to generate publicity for his privately held
company.
"I put it out mainly because I'm mad," he said in an interview. "I'm mad
that we have a huge multibillion-dollar operation issuing go-fish subpoenas to
six employees.
"Match.com was doing that to intimidate employees, to say, 'Hey, if you
leave and go someplace else, we're going to prosecute you.' "
Vest, an accountant by training, made millions when he sold his financial
planning business, H.D. Vest, to Wells Fargo for $127.5 million in 2001. He
owned more than 70 percent of the company's stock.
Vest made headlines earlier this year after he began an investigation into
his father's 1946 death. Harold Eugene Vest was found hanging from a noose in
the back of his wood shop. The coroner ruled the death a suicide, but Herb
Vest wasn't convinced. He hired a private detective and took out an ad
offering $10,000 for information.
SOURCE TrueBeginnings
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