Grindr’s majority owner is fighting to take the LGBTQ+ dating app private after a stock decline caused personal financial distress, according to one. report from semaphore,
The owners in question are Raymond Zage, a former hedge fund manager and American expatriate who now lives in Singapore, and James Lu, a Chinese-American entrepreneur and former Amazon and Baidu executive. together they led it 2020 acquisition Grindr from Chinese ownership for more than $600 million, then taking the app public in 2022 blank-check merger,
Reportedly, Zaze and Lu, who together control more than 60% of Grindr, pledged almost all of their shares as collateral for a personal loan from a unit of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek. After Grindr started declining in late September, those loans became less collateralized (worth less than the loan), so the Temasek unit seized and sold some shares last week.
The decline in Grindr’s stock appears to be disconnected from the fundamentals of the business — profits were up 25% in the second quarter, Semaphore notes, though it has seen some declines. executive businessThere is some concern among investors about this Margin lossVery.
Either way, the pair are now said to be in talks with Fortress Investment Group – which is now majority-owned by Mubadala Investment Co., which is Self — owned by the Abu Dhabi government — to secure financing for the buyout at about $15 a share, which would value Grindr at about $3 billion. shares jump After the report.
