Shares in courting app firm Bumble soared by virtually 50% on Monday after a report that it’s in superior talks to be purchased for round $1bn (£757m).
Know-how holding firm Ithaca might announce a deal to purchase the Texas-based agency as early as this week, in keeping with the Wall Road Journal.
The leap in Bumble’s shares pushed its inventory market valuation to over $580m however that’s nonetheless far under a peak of greater than $14bn it reached after listing on the Nasdaq in 2021.
Bumble is among the world’s most downloaded courting apps, working in a crowded market the place progress has slowed. The BBC has contacted Bumble and Ithaca for remark.
Bumble was launched in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, who was additionally a co-founder of courting app big Tinder.
Wolfe Herd constructed Bumble’s model round a particular characteristic that solely allowed ladies to provoke conversations with matches.
It recently abandoned that rule, prompting debate amongst customers over whether or not the app had misplaced what set it other than rivals.
“In the present day, our group is asking for extra flexibility, much less stress, and extra alternatives to create actual, significant connections and that’s what this new expertise supplies,” Wolfe Herd stated in August.
Courting apps like Bumble have come beneath stress in recent times as some youthful customers have grown disillusioned with searching for dates.
Bumble stated in 2025 that it could minimize virtually a 3rd of its workforce because the trade grappled with what Wolfe Herd described as an “inflection level” in on-line courting.
Investments in different courting firms have additionally soured as apps have struggled to persuade customers to pay for his or her companies.
Match Group – which owns apps together with Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge – has additionally seen its shares fall sharply from their peak in 2021.
In accordance a report by media watchdog Ofcom in 2025, adults within the UK have been spending much less time on courting apps in comparison with three years earlier.
Some single individuals are as a substitute turning to board game get-togethers, ebook golf equipment and different group actions within the hope of discovering a associate.
