Ithaca Holdings announced on October 13, 2026 that it signed an agreement to acquire Bumble and take it private, partnering with founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, with Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman as co-CEOs. Bumble confirmed the deal at $1.3 billion, or $6.05 a share, a 138 percent premium, after a valuation fall from $8.5 billion to about $300 million. Reporting since has added that sales fell more than 15 percent in the most recent quarter, with paying users also down, and that the stock returned 119 percent on the take-private. The discussion now centers on Gupta's framing of the deal as a bet on human connection as AI advances, with no clear plan for Bumble.