Grindr confirms it’s in talks to go private for no less than $15 a share

Grindr said its largest shareholders have “engaged financial and legal advisers” to explore the possibility of taking the company private, according to a Tuesday regulatory filing.

The filing confirms a Monday report from Semafor and adds a tiny bit of clarity: the price for a take-private deal hasn’t yet been determined, the filing said, but it would be no less than $15 a share. Shares of the company, which had surged after the Monday report, pulled back some in Tuesday afternoon trading, to around $12.50.

James Lu and Raymond Zage, the shareholders who together own more than 60% of the gay dating app, have received a preliminary and conditional debt financing proposal of as much as $1 billion, per the filing.

While Grindr has generally performed better than its peers, it is still down about 30% for the year.

The move is being discussed, Semafor reported, as Zage and Lu had pledged nearly all of their Grindr stock for personal loans. Their lender seized some shares and sold them last week after the loans became undercollateralized following the stock’s recent slide.