Bumble In Talks With Ithaca Holdings For $1 Billion Private Buyout Deal
Dating app Bumble, whose market value is roughly $389 million, is discussing being taken private by Ithaca Holdings in a $1 billion deal. Company shares closed at $3.80 on Monday, up 50%, the highest-ever single-session percentage in for Bumble.
Ithaca is a Silicon Valley-based holdings company for tech enterprises. In June, reports said Bumble was considering a sale as growth slows in the online dating sector. Anonymous sources had also disclosed that investment bankers at Morgan Stanley were assisting the company with the sale.
Dating apps are losing their appeal as Gen Z users are growing more disillusioned with these platforms, resulting in shrinking numbers for Bumble and industry rival Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge. In August, Bumble’s projected Q3 revenue was $205 million to $213 million, lower than analysts’ estimates of $215.1 million. Its second-quarter revenue had fallen 15.2% to $210.5 million compared to the same period last year, in line with analysts' $210.4 million forecast.
Paying users on dating apps are declining, with Bumble reporting a decline of 16.4% to 3.2 million, although average revenue per paying user rose 1.2% to $21.96. Match Group’s Q3 estimates were also below Wall Street’s expectations. The company forecast revenue of $885 million to $895 million against analysts’ estimates of $891.5 million. Like Bumble, in the second quarter, Match's paying users also fell by 6% to 13.3 million, though revenue per payer rose 6% to $21.13.
Financial analysts are pointing out that going private is Bumble’s indirect admission that its strategies to maximise growth and revenue are failing, and that an ownership change is unlikely to fix these core issues. Engagement on dating apps is reducing as fewer people are interested in the swipe-right model, as it rarely brings them the desired result.
Bumble debuted on the Nasdaq market in 2021, making a whopping $14 billion, but has since struggled to grow in the post-pandemic years. In an attempt to boost growth, like most of these online dating apps, Bumble has also released AI-powered features and introduced newer ways for people to meet and connect. However, market researchers remain sceptical that these initiatives will increase revenue, advising Bumble to give people a stronger reason to return to these apps and also pay for a range of its exclusive services.
Bumble’s total paying user base fell over 11% to 3.7 million in 2025, and annual revenue declined 10% to about $966 million. The end of Q2 saw the total number of paying users fall 16.4% to 3.2 million.
The platform has been trying to offset its shrinking user base by raising prices and increasing monetisation, and to its credit, average revenue per paying user has shown moderate improvement. Bumble has also expanded its business to include Bumble For Friends, a social networking feature, and Bumble Bizz, which focuses on professional connections. These are only a small part of its business, with the dating service still being its primary business.
As Bumble navigates discussions of a buyout, it faces a critical turning point. Going private is only a temporary relief to address financial pressures and cannot confront challenges to revenue generation. The fact of the matter is that the younger generation has online dating fatigue, and therefore, platforms built for this purpose are no longer desirable.
While the company has diversified its business, its brand is still associated with dating, making it more difficult for these secondary ventures to take off. The company must come up with initiatives that make online dating more appealing, and more importantly, Bumble must convince its users to pay for these services at a time when consumer expenditure is falling.
