Grindr Shares Soar As Billionaire Owner’s Buyout Offer Values Dating App At $3.5 Billion

Forbes

After the company’s majority owners offered to buyout the minority shareholders in a deal valuing the LGBTQ dating app at $3.5 billion, its stock surged over 18% last week.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanburgos/2025/10/24/grindr-shares-soar-as-majority-shareholders-buyout-offer-values-dating-app-at-35-billion/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Grindr shares soar as billionaire owners buyout offer values dating app at $3.5

00:08billion. The New York listed shares of Grindr jumped the most in three years after billionaire

00:15George Raymond Zage III and James Liu, the company's majority owners, offered to buy out

00:22the minority shareholders in a deal valuing the LGBTQ dating app at $3.5 billion.

00:30Grindr shares climbed 18.9 percent to $15.06 at the close of trading in New York on Friday,

00:36October 24. Since then, shares hovered just under $15 this past week.

00:43Zage and Liu offered to buy the rest of the company at $18 a share, a 51% premium to the

00:49stock's price on October 10, before the majority shareholders disclosed plans to take the company

00:55private, according to a statement on October 24. The offer is also 20% above the minimum

01:01price of $15 that the duo had planned to make. Zage said, quote,

01:08We are strong believers in the long-term outlook for the company. I have been a consistent buyer

01:13of shares in Grindr since listing, buying over 200 million shares on the public market,

01:17and am also willing to contribute additional equity to this deal.

01:23Zage, who successfully oversaw the Asian division of U.S. hedge fund Farallon Capital Management

01:29before setting up Singapore-based Tiga Investments in 2017, said equity and debt investors have

01:36expressed interest to participate in this deal. The majority shareholders disclosed earlier in October

01:41that they have raised $1 billion in preliminary and conditional debt financing. Liu, the chairman

01:49of Grindr, said, quote, We are pleased to submit this proposal, which represents a significant premium

01:54to recent trading prices and better positions the company for focused growth as a private entity.

02:00We look forward to engaging constructively with the company and other shareholders in executing

02:06on our proposal. Zage and Liu, who own a combined 64% of Grindr, are making an offer as the company's

02:14shares tumbled this year despite an earnings improvement with its net profit rising 25% to $17

02:20million in the second quarter from a year ago. Last year, Grindr saw its net loss widen to $131

02:28million due to a non-cash loss related to its warrant liability on $345 million in sales, which jumped

02:36by a third. It completed the redemption of all public and private warrants earlier in February.

02:42In 2020, Zage joined Liu, co-founder of U.S. buyout firm Joffrey Capital, and American serial

02:51entrepreneur J. Michael Guerin Jr., to set up San Vicente Acquisition to buy Grindr for about $608

02:58million, with Zage's privately held Tiga owning 54% of the joint venture.

03:05The partners then merged Grindr with Zage's blank-check company Tiga Acquisition in a transaction

03:10valued at $2.1 billion to take it public two years later on the New York Stock Exchange.

03:17The stock surged over 200% when it listed in November 2022, landing Zage in the Three Comma

03:24Club after accounting for pledged shares. While shares have corrected by almost 60% since the

03:30frothy listing, it's earned him a spot among Singapore's 50 richest and still accounts for the

03:36bulk of his $1.5 billion fortune today based on Forbes' real-time data. Launched in 2009 as one of

03:44the first location-based dating apps for gay men, Grindr has since become the most popular LGBTQ

03:50mobile app worldwide, claiming over 14 million monthly active users. For full coverage, check

03:57out Jonathan Burgos' piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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