Bumble Agrees to $1.3B All-Cash Buyout From Ithaca Holdings

Bumble is leaving the public markets. The dating company said Tuesday it has agreed to an all-cash buyout from Ithaca Holdings that values Bumble at $1.3 billion, with Class A shareholders getting $6.05 a share. That is about a 138% premium to the unaffected close on October 9, and a steep drop from the roughly $14 billion valuation at its 2021 IPO.

An independent board committee ran the process. Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd recused herself from the board vote, then backed the deal as a shareholder alongside Blackstone affiliates. Ithaca co-CEOs Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman will become Bumble's co-CEOs at close; Wolfe Herd says she stays involved. HQ stays in Austin.

The numbers explain the reset. Second-quarter 2026 revenue was $211 million, down 15.2% year over year, and paying users fell 16.4% to about 3.2 million. Bumble has been testing AI features and offline products like Plans. Going private buys room to do that without quarterly earnings theater.

— via TechCrunch, Business Wire.