Ithaca Holdings in talks to take Bumble private at a valuation of about $1 billion

Ithaca Holdings is in advanced talks to buy Bumble and take the dating app off the stock exchange. The deal values the company at roughly $1 billion. Reuters reported this, citing one person familiar with the matter. TNW has not independently confirmed the information, and neither Bumble nor Ithaca responded to Reuters' request for comment.

Keep the status of this news in mind: this is not an announced deal but a leak about negotiations. The terms may change, and the talks may fall through. According to Reuters' report and TNW's retelling, the market reacted quickly, but the available excerpt does not give details of the share price movement.

What is known about the deal

The structure is standard for public companies whose market capitalization has dropped sharply: a private buyer acquires the shares, the company stops reporting to the exchange, and it gains more freedom to restructure. For Bumble, this would mean escaping quarterly pressure from analysts at a moment when the business needs to rebuild its product.

The main parameters that can be named now:

• Buyer: Ithaca Holdings.
• Format: take-private, meaning the company is removed from public trading.
• Valuation benchmark: about $1 billion.
• Stage: advanced talks; the deal is neither signed nor announced.
• Source: Reuters, one informant, no comments from either party.

Why the $1 billion figure stands out

At its IPO in February 2021, Bumble was valued at more than $8 billion. If a valuation of about $1 billion is confirmed, the company will have lost roughly seven-eighths of its market value since the offering. The figure is telling for the entire online dating segment: audience growth and paying-user growth at apps of this type have stalled, while the costs of user acquisition and moderation remain high.

Bumble itself has spent the last two years restructuring. In January 2024, founder Whitney Wolfe Herd stepped down as CEO and returned in March 2025, and in mid-2025 the company cut about a third of its staff. Meanwhile, it has tried to steer the product toward more meaningful matching, including through AI features. Ownership by a private investor could give it time and resources for that turnaround without quarterly reporting.

Where AI fits in

The news itself has no direct AI component: Reuters is writing about a financial transaction, not about technology. But the context matters. Dating apps have become one of the main testing grounds for generative models: matchmaking, help with messaging, photo verification, and the fight against bots and deepfakes. All of these features require investment in inference and data, and a company with a capitalization of about $1 billion has a limited budget for such experiments. A private owner could revise that budget in either direction.

What to watch next

Until there is official confirmation, it makes sense to watch for a few things:

• Whether a press release or an SEC filing appears with the deal terms and the price per share.
• What premium to the market price shareholders will receive, since that determines whether they approve the deal.
• What Ithaca plans to do with the product: cut costs or invest in AI features.
• Whether Whitney Wolfe Herd stays in leadership after the deal closes.

For those who work on dating products or invest in the segment, the main takeaway for now is practical: treat a valuation of about $1 billion as a new benchmark for the sector, but only after the terms are officially confirmed.