Bumble agrees to a $1.3B acquisition deal

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2:32And I mean, you can learn about a wide range of topics. Again, ODSC West 2026 is happening October 27 through the 29th in San Francisco and virtually. Go to odsc.ai slash west and use promo code tcdaily for an additional 15 % off your pass to ODSC AI West 2026. That's odsc.ai slash west and use code TCDAILY to get an extra 15 % off on their number one AI builders and training conference. Bumble agrees to a$1.3 billion acquisition deal. I'm Imran Shaikh and your Wednesday Daily Crunch comes a-buzzin' featuring three big tech headlines starting right now. Well, it's now easier to use Spotify by talking to Siri on iPhones, updated to iOS 27, Spotify said on Tuesday.

3:18You see, users will no longer need to specify on Spotify when they're asking Siri to play music or other content using the streaming services apps. Instead, users can just say whatever it is they want to hear and Spotify will play the content, whether that's a specific track, album, podcast, audiobook, or a broader query like play workout music or a request for one of Spotify's features like play my DJ. Siri's voice control can also be used to do things like request personalized recommendations, resume podcasts, search your library, or even create a prompted playlist with AI. Spotify says removing the extra voice command will make hands-free listening feel more natural, as users can just focus on what they want to hear, not how to phrase the request properly to get their preferred music app to respond.

4:09Now, this feature works because Siri can now learn your music app preference. You see, if you consistently use Spotify, it'll, well, route your audio requests to that app automatically. The new feature is available globally for users with an iPhone 15 Pro or later outside the EU if Apple Intelligence is enabled in settings. On Monday, Meta's Super Intelligence Lab released a pair of new state-of-the-art models called Muse Wonder and Muse Wonderful, Full, representing the company's first attempt at a Frontier model. Now, where Muse Spark aimed to be a lightweight model that could perform at low latency, the Wonder models are larger and said to be more capable with higher benchmark scores and better results on complex tasks like coding.

4:55According to Meta's testing, presented in the model card, Wonder and Wonder Full achieve comparable benchmark scores to Fable 5.1 and GPT-6 Astra. Together, they mark the next step on our scaling ladder and a major leap toward personal superintelligence, Meta's blog post about the model's reads. Now that scale is reflected in the pricing. You see, accessed through the Meta model API, Wonder will cost $4 per million input tokens and$20 per million output tokens, making it roughly equivalent in cost to GPT-6 Sol or Opus 5.5. And notably, Wonderful will only be available to Muse code subscribers and will not be served through the API.

5:38Both models will also be used to power the Muse agent. In keeping with Meta's interest in developing personal assistants that can perform tasks over a long period, the company placed particular emphasis on the new model's ability to retain and synthesize information given by the user, a property Meta calls Active Memory. To achieve better recall, Meta highlighted the Memory Bench benchmark, which challenges continual learning and memory construction frameworks. According to the company's testing, Muse Wonder now scores higher on Memory Bench than Fable, Opus, or Astra. Now, these new models are the first frontier model released since Scale AI founder Alexander Wang restructured Meta's AI efforts in August of last year.

6:21Since then, Meta has released its lightweight MuseSpark model and MuseAgent, but has avoided the kind of state-of-the-art model releases OpenAI and Anthropic are known for. According to the Post, the models were trained at Meta's Prometheus data center in central Ohio, which came online earlier this year. Bumble is getting a new owner. The dating app announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to a$1.3 billion acquisition deal with Ithaca Holdings, marking a major shift for a company that once looked like one of the biggest success stories in online dating. Now, the deal would take the company private after years of declining subscriber numbers, falling revenue, and mounting pressure to rethink the online dating experience.

7:04The move may give Bumble a chance to work on its next chapter away from the pressure of public markets. Founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolf Hurd, Bumble made a name for itself for its unique approach where only women made the first move. Well, that helped it stand out in a crowded dating market, and the company eventually went public in 2021 at a valuation of roughly$14 billion. Since then, however, the dating app landscape has changed considerably. Bumble has faced declining paying users, weaker revenue, and growing dissatisfaction with the familiar swipe-based model. The company recently reported second quarter 2026 revenue of$211 million, down 15.2 % year-over-year, while its paying user base fell 16.4 % to approximately$3.2 million.

7:54The acquisition follows a review of strategic options by an independent committee of Bumble's board, which recommended the transaction after consulting outside legal and financial advisors. Wolf Heard did not participate in the board's discussions or vote on the deal, according to the press release. Going private might give Bumble more flexibility to experiment with new features and make changes without having to answer to public market investors every quarter. The company has been exploring AI-driven features and putting more energy into helping people connect offline, reflecting a broader shift in how younger users approach dating.

8:39same Crunch channel. And until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.

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