Online platform: Dating app Bumble sold for $1.3 billion

New York - Dating app Bumble, which initially gave women the initiative and disrupted the market, has been sold for $1.3 billion. The purchaser is an investment firm, as Bumble announced. The company will be taken off the stock exchange. The price, which is equivalent to $1.16 billion, is also a fraction of the former stock value and a hefty premium over current prices.

Bumble and competitors like Tinder suggest that interest in online dating has waned, particularly among younger users. Bumble reached a market value of around $14 billion at its IPO in early 2021. Just last week, the company was valued at $340 million. Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who was also involved in the founding of Tinder, tried to give women the starring role on Bumble, only allowing them to initiate conversations.

This restriction was abandoned in August as Bumble struggled with declining revenues. The app's buyer is investment firm Ithaca Holdings, behind which John Hegeman, a former top manager at Meta's Facebook, stands. Ithaca says its goal is to invest in companies that enrich people's lives in a world transformed by Artificial Intelligence. Hegeman and co-founder Ravi Gupta are set to become co-chairs of Bumble.