Bumble shares soar 50% amid $1bn takeover talks

Dating app once worth more than $14bn could be taken private by technology investment firm Ithaca after years of falling users, revenue and share price

Shares in dating app Bumble soared by almost 50 per cent yesterday after reports it could be taken private in a deal worth around $1 billion (£757 million).

The Texas-based company is reportedly in advanced talks with technology investment firm Ithaca Holdings, with a deal potentially announced as early as this week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Bumble shares closed on Monday at $3.80, up about 50 per cent in their biggest-ever one-day percentage rise.

The surge lifted the company’s stock market value to around $580 million, still a fraction of the more than $14 billion it was worth after floating on Nasdaq in 2021.

Bumble was founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, who had previously co-founded Tinder.

It built its name around allowing women to make the first move after a match, a feature that helped distinguish it from rivals including Tinder and Hinge.

The company abandoned that requirement earlier this year as it tried to revive growth and give users more ways to start conversations.

Bumble has reportedly struggled as younger users have become less interested in traditional dating apps and paying subscriber numbers have fallen.

Its total paying users dropped by more than 11 per cent to about 3.7 million in 2025, while annual revenue fell nearly 10 per cent to around $966 million.

Paying users dropped another 16.4 per cent to 3.2 million in the second quarter of this year.

The company also cut around 30 per cent of its workforce last year as Wolfe Herd described the online dating industry as being at an “inflection point”.

Ithaca Holdings was recently founded by Silicon Valley executives Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman and plans to use technologies including artificial intelligence across the businesses it acquires.

Wolfe Herd is expected to retain an ownership stake and remain involved with Bumble if a deal goes ahead, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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_{Main image: Bumble shares have surged almost 50 per cent following reports that the dating app company is in advanced talks with investment firm Ithaca Holdings over a possible $1 billion takeover that would take it private. Credit: The European/Bumble}