Online dating is going public

Online dating is going public.

According to a report from CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin, IAC/InterActive, the media conglomerate run by Barry Diller, is preparing to spin out Match.com.

It's not exactly clear, however, if this is a spin-out only of the Match.com property or the company's Match unit, which also includes dating sites Tinder and OkCupid, as well as other properties like SAT administrator The Princeton Review.

IAC owns a majority stake in Tinder, the dating app which requires users to simply swipe right to "like" another user, and swipe left to "pass."

In IAC's most recent quarter, the Match Group accounted for $239.2 million of IAC's $772.5 million in total revenues. The unit was also responsible for $25.9 million of IAC's $75.2 million in adjusted EBITDA during the first quarter.

In March, Tinder announced that Chris Payne, formerly in charge of eBay's North America operations, would take over as CEO. In February, analysts at Morgan Stanley took a look at the potential value of Tinder and concluded the company was unlikely to get young people - its core audience - to pay for the service.

Following the news, shares of IAC were up 6% in pre-market trade on Thursday.