Well, that didn’t last long.
Back in 2017, a Chinese tech company called Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd bought Grindr LLC. But now, it appears that they’re looking to sell.
According to Reuters, Kunlun Tech made this decision after a U.S. government national security panel questioned Kunlun’s ownership of the app. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (or CFIUS) said that Kunlun’s ownership of the California-based Grindr company is a national security risk.
Since Kunlun came into ownership of Grindr, Grindr hired investment bank Cowen Inc to handle the sale process, and is currently soliciting acquisition interest from U.S. investment firms. On top of seeing if Grindr’s competitors are interested.
It appears this decision by CFIUS is years in the making. Kunlun first bought a major part of Grindr’s stakes back in 2016. At the time, the company bought 61.5% of Grindr’s stakes for $93 million. That then bumped up the business’s value to $155 million. It then bought out the rest of Grindr in 2017. Both times, the CFIUS was not involved in these business dealings.
CFIUS did not reveal its reasons for blocking the already finished deal, but Jason Waite, a partner at law firm Alston & Bird LLP, said it’s likely based on personal information.
“Personal data has emerged as a mainstream concern of CFIUS,” Waite said.
This comes a year after Grindr announced that it was going take its stock Public.
We wondered if Grindr was a security risk with Kunlun Tech in charge of it, and now it appears we were right.
But now that the company is back up for sale, who will end up owning it next?
h/t: Reuters
