Grindr’s owners may take it private after experiencing financial distress

Grindr’s majority owners are seeking to take the LGBTQ+ dating app private after a stock decline led to a personal financial crisis, according to… Report from Semaphore.

The owners in question are Raymond Zagy, a former hedge fund manager and American expatriate now based in Singapore, and James Lu, a Chinese-American businessman and former Amazon and Baidu executive. They drove together 2020 acquisition From Grindr from Chinese ownership for more than $600 million, the app was then launched to the public in 2022 through a… Merger of blank checks.

Zage and Lu, who together control more than 60% of Grindr, reportedly pledged almost all of their shares as collateral for personal loans from a unit of Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek. After Grindr started to decline at the end of September, those loans became less than collateral (worth less than debt), so the Temasek unit took some shares and sold last week.

Grindr’s stock decline appears to be disconnected from business fundamentals — earnings rose 25% in the second quarter, Semafor notes, though it saw some… Executive turnover; There was some concern about investors Narrowing marginsalso.

Either way, the pair are now said to be in talks with Fortress Investment Group – in which Mubadala Investment Company now has a majority stake. itself Owned by the Abu Dhabi government – ​​to secure financing for the acquisition at about $15 per share, which would value Grindr at about $3 billion. shares jump After the report.