Bumble to go private: holding company Ithaca buys the dating app for $1.3 billion

Dating company Bumble is leaving the stock market. As it announced on 13 October, Ithaca Holdings, which describes itself as a long-term holding company for technology businesses, is acquiring Bumble in an all-cash deal worth about $1.3 billion. Shareholders will receive $6.05 per Class A share, a premium of about 138 per cent to the unaffected closing price on 9 October and about 119 per cent to the 30-day volume-weighted average price. After completion, Bumble will operate as a privately held company; besides the Bumble app, the group includes the dating platform Badoo and the friendship app BFF.

An independent special committee of the board had reviewed strategic alternatives with outside advisers and recommended the deal; the board approved it unanimously, with founder and chief executive Whitney Wolfe Herd recused from the discussions and vote. The required shareholder approval has already been given by written consent of affiliates of investment firm Blackstone and of Wolfe Herd. Completion is still subject to customary conditions, including any required regulatory approvals; Bumble gave no date. Ithaca co-founders and co-CEOs Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman are to lead Bumble jointly. Wolfe Herd, who founded Bumble in 2014 and returned as CEO in March 2025, said: “I will remain actively involved with Bumble.”

The sale comes at a difficult time for the industry, which TechCrunch describes as a “reset” for online dating. At its 2021 stock market debut, Bumble was valued at roughly $14 billion. In the second quarter of 2026, revenue fell 15.2 per cent to $210.5 million and paying users dropped 16.4 per cent to about 3.2 million. According to Global Dating Insights, Ithaca plans to support growth with artificial intelligence and operational expertise, among other things. Gupta and Hegeman said: “Technology should work in service of our deepest source of fulfillment, human connection.”