Grindr Will Be Sold By Chinese Owner Kunlun In $608M Deal

Grindr is set to sell for $608.5 million. The sale comes after the US government expressed national security concerns regarding Beijing Kunlun Tech’s ownership of the gay dating app. San Vicente Acquisition Partners — a group of entrepreneurs and investors in the technology, media and telecommunications industries — will acquire a 98.5 percent stake in Grindr in the deal. 

Kunlun is one of China’s largest mobile gaming companies. The company took a majority stake in Grindr in 2016 for $93 million. In 2018, Kunlun purchased the remaining percentage of the popular dating platform for $152 million. The agreement was met with apprehension on the part of journalists, China experts and former intelligence officials, who suggested that it put the Chinese government in a position to demand sensitive data about the app’s users, including those who are not Chinese citizens.

“The Chinese government is sweeping up massive amounts of data on not only its own citizens, but also Americans and others, as part of a unique and well-planned effort to build files on foreigners for intelligence purposes,” Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin warned in January 2018.

Democratic U.S. Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Grindr demanding to know how the app planned to protect users’ privacy under its Chinese owner. The following year, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a panel that reviews takeovers of American businesses, reportedly informed Kunlun that its ownership of Grindr was a national security risk. Kunlun reached a deal with the committee last May to divest itself of Grindr by June 2020. CFIUS had previously blocked acquisitions of MoneyGram and AppLovin by Chinese companies over security concerns.

Grindr’s data handling practices have repeatedly come into question in recent years. Last year, reports surfaced that sensitive information — such as the private messages and HIV status of millions of American Grindr users — had been made accessible to engineers based in Beijing. As recently as this January, a Norwegian nonprofit filed three complaints alleging that Grindr’s Android app is in violation of the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) data protection legislation. A different Norweign nonprofit found that Grindr shared its users’ HIV statuses and other personal data with two companies that help optimize the app.

The deal for San Vicente Acquisition to purchase Grindr is subject to shareholder approval and a review by CFIUS. Grindr, Kunlun and San Vicente Acquisition have not yet released comments on the sale.