OAN’s Stephanie Stahl
3:09 PM – Monday, November 6, 2023
Bumble, a dating app that boasts about 12.3 million active users, has seen its shares plunge in value after the company’s founder and chief executive Whitney Wolfe Herd announced she will be stepping down.
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This change in leadership will take effect January 2nd. Wolfe Herd will step down from her role as CEO and assume the position as executive chair. The young entrepreneur founded Bumble in 2014, which is built on the principle of empowering women by enabling them to take the first step in online dating.
With its initial public offering in 2021, Bumble propelled Wolfe Herd, who was 31 at the time, into the ranks of the world’s youngest self-made female billionaires. Bumble’s stock price surged 63% to $70.31, with a market cap of $20 billion.
However, the Texas-based company’s shares have decreased dramatically since Wolfe Herd’s announcement, closing down 4.4% on Monday.
Lidiane Jones, a longtime tech executive who has been serving since December as the CEO of the workplace communication service Slack, will be taking Wolfe Herd’s place.
In a statement, Wolfe Herd referred to the title change as integral to a new chapter of “growth.”
“This move to Executive Chair gives me the ability to step forward into a new and exciting role, get back to my founder roots and bring immense passion and focus to this next chapter of growth,” Wolfe Herd said in a statement, adding that she and Jones would be “fantastic partners.”
Wolfe Herd began her professional journey by co-founding Tinder, one of the earliest dating apps to gain popularity. She left Tinder in 2014, filing a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and discrimination, which was eventually settled.
She went on to establish Bumble in collaboration with Andrey Andreev, the former proprietor of Badoo, another dating app. In 2019, she assumed leadership of the merged company when Andreev faced accusations of racism and sexism.
Currently, Bumble serves as the parent entity for four apps—Bumble, Official, Badoo, and Fruitz. The Bumble app has expanded its offerings to facilitate not only romantic connections but also friendships and professional networking.
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