Markets
Jonathan Gray
Blackstone President and COO Jonathan Gray (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP)

Bumble drops after big shareholder Blackstone and founder Wolfe Herd move to sell a huge chunk of the company

Together the sales, which come after disappointing earnings report, account for more than 17% of the company’s shares outstanding.

J. Edward Moreno

Shares of dating app Bumble plunged after big shareholder Blackstone and Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd filed to sell more than 17% of the company.

Blackstone, which was listed in regulatory filings as several numerical holding companies with the title “BX Buzz” and an address “c/o the Blackstone Group,” registered to sell nearly 16.7 million shares, which would amount to about 16% of Bumble’s shares outstanding. The filings were signed by Robert Brooks, Blackstone’s senior managing director and head of private equity finance. According to the latest FactSet data, Blackstone recently owned more than 27% of the company.

Wolfe Herd, Bumble’s founder who recently returned as CEO, also filed to sell about 1.4 million shares, or $9.7 million worth, at the stock’s closing price. FactSet shows her stake was recently about 2.1 million shares.

Blackstone and Bumble didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shares of Bumble were down 18% to $5.88 in early trading.

Blackstone sold chunks of its position for about $6.50 a share, significantly less than the $7.15 the stock closed at on Wednesday, the filings show. The dating app, which has struggled to spark sales growth, recently reported a surprise loss for the second quarter of this year.

More Markets

See all Markets
markets

Lucid climbs after announcements of new CEO and expanded robotaxi partnership with Uber

Shares of luxury EV maker Lucid climbed more than 12% in premarket trading on Tuesday following two announcements, before a news of a new stock offering erased most of the gains.

First, the company announced it has found a permanent CEO in Silvio Napoli. Napoli was formerly CEO of the Schindler Group, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of elevators and escalators.

Lucid has been led by interim CEO Marc Winterhoff for more than a year, who will now step into the role of chief operating officer.

Lucid also announced an expansion of its robotaxi partnership with Uber from 20,000 planned vehicles to 35,000. Uber will increase its investment in Lucid by $200 million, bringing the total to $500 million. The PIF, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, also committed a new investment of $550 million into the company.

The company still plans a commercial launch of its robotaxi service with Uber later this year in the Bay Area.

Following those updates, Lucid announced it would raise an additional $300 million through a public stock offering. Its premarket gain decreased to about 5%.

markets

CarMax sinks following Q4 earnings report

Used car retailer CarMax reported its fourth-quarter earnings before the bell on Tuesday. It’s shares fell about 7% in premarket trading.

The company reported:

  • Adjusted earnings of $0.34 per share, compared to Wall Street estimates of $0.23 per share compiled by FactSet.

  • Sales of $5.9 billion, above expectations of $5.7 billion.

  • Retail gross profit per unit of $2,115, slightly below estimates and down $207 from the year prior.

  • 181,188 used vehicles sold to retail customers, down about 1% from the year prior.

For fiscal 2027, CarMax said it expects to open four new stores. The company expects retail GPU (gross profit per unit) to “decline at a rate broadly in line with our Q4 FY 2026 year-over-year trend.”

CarMax has seen elevated interest in EVs and hybrids in recent weeks, as gas prices continue to climb amid the war in Iran. Last month, the company told Sherwood News that page views for EV and hybrids had risen more than 9% compared to the month prior.

Activist investor Starboard recently took a $350 million stake in CarMax, urging the company to cut costs and adopt more dynamic pricing. Last week, it was announced that CarMax would add two board members after talks with Starboard.

$286🛢️

HSBC Group's CEO, Georges Elhedery, just broke down why end-buyers of oil are facing prices way above what traders see on their screens.

During a fireside chat with Bloomberg TV’s David Ingles at HSBC’s Global Investment Summit, Elhedery explained why his “biggest worry about the global economy is the disruption that’s coming from the Strait of Hormuz closure, or quasi closure.”

While the ceasefire between the US and Iran was intended to improve the flow of oil through this key chokepoint, the subsequent announcement of a US blockade of the waterway threatens to do precisely the opposite.

And that’s potentially prolonging, or exacerbating, the pain for crude importers, as Elhedery unpacked:

“What worries me is not the headlines, I mean oil headline is above $100, $110. Realistically, if you are now trying to get oil from the Middle East, you may be paying $140, $150.

Realistically, if you try to get oil from the Red Sea, you are paying more than $30, $40 for shipping. Insurance costs, which used to be 25 basis points, is more like 5%, and war insurance has been scrapped, you’re paying 5% without even the war insurance component.

So the barrel of oil door to door or the barrel of refined oil door to door is way above the headline price of oil. The highest I’ve seen, and I’m hoping we don’t see more of that, but the highest I’ve seen is $286 dollars for a barrel of oil that reached Sri Lanka. This is not a country and an economy that can easily afford these kind of prices sustainably.”

In separate interview with Bloomberg News, Elhedery warned that the continuation of these shipping disruptions would be felt not just in the price of energy, but also its availability.

Separately, the International Energy Agency updated its oil market outlook, with the Paris-based organization now forecasting a contraction in both supply and demand for oil, predicting an "80,000 bpd drop in demand growth this year, from a 640,000 bpd rise in its ​March report" according to Reuters.

markets

American Airlines jumps on potential merger talks with United

American Airlines was trading up more than 5% in premarket on Tuesday after Bloomberg and Reuters reported that United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby had floated the idea of a possible merger with American Airlines.

According to Reuters, Kirby raised the idea during a February White House meeting with President Trump, though it remains unclear whether United has made any formal approach to American or whether any deal process is underway.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC. Futures and event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC.