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Bumble is cutting a third of its workforce, the latest sign that all is not well in the business of online dating. The company informed its staff of the layoffs in a letter from founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd on Wednesday, describing the company and the dating industry as reaching an inflection point. In recent months, weve been rebuildingreturning to what makes us trusted, unique, and deeply human, Wolfe Herd wrote. But intentional rebuilding requires hard decisions. Bumbles workforce reduction will affect 240 positions, reducing the companys head count by 30%. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Bumble said that it expects the layoffs to save $40 million annuallycash that it plans to reinvest into product and technology development. The company expects to pay between $13 and $18 million in costs related to the layoffs in the third and fourth quarters of the year. On Wednesday, Bumbles shares rose more than 20% on news of the layoffs and were trading around $6.26 at the time of writing. The reality is, we need to take decisive action to restructure to build a company thats resilient, intentional, and ready for the next decade, Wolfe Herd wrote. We have reset our strategy and are going back to a startup mentalityrooted in an ownership mindset and team structures designed for faster, more meaningful execution. Wolfe Herd left her role as Bumbles CEO at the beginning of 2024, with former Slack CEO Lidiane Jones stepping in to lead the company. In March of this year, Jones resigned for personal reasons, and Wolfe Herd again took the helm of the company she founded in 2014 after cofounding Tindernow Bumbles main rival. Dating app decline Bumble, which has historically put women in the drivers seat of the online dating experience, has struggled to find its footing in a post-pandemic online dating world where many former users feel burned out by the churn of dating apps. The company isnt alone in that struggledating giant Match Group announced its own major layoffs last monthbut Bumble has resorted to altering its own DNA to adapt to a changing landscape for users looking for love. Last year, Bumble announced that men on its app would be allowed to message women first, a huge change for a dating system thats prided itself on letting women make the initial move. The feature, called Opening Moves, let women set prompts on their profiles that men could choose to respond to. The gamble doesnt appear to have made a lasting impact on Bumbles bottom line, and the companys stock continued to slide into 2025. Bumble first went public in 2021 with its buzzy stock debuting at more than $70 a sharea distant memory from the stocks recent single digit values. Bumbles woes are shared by Match Group, its biggest rival, which owns Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge, and a deep roster of other niche and general interest dating apps. The two competitors, which together account for nearly all of the online dating market share, lost more than $40 billion combined between 2021 and 2024. Online dating is a strange business in some ways. While hookup apps like Grindr might beg to differ, a successful dating app interaction could result in both users leaving the app for a long stretch, or even forever. That intrinsic paradox is a tricky business to begin with, but the more dire existential threat might be that neither Match Group nor Bumble can seem to crack the code of Gen Zs dating habits. So far, that emerging cohort of eligible singles isnt very interested in paying for a subscription on a dating app and, worse yet, might be looking for love IRL, of all places.
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E-Commerce
Zohran Mamdani, 33, a New York City assemblymember who was practically a political unknown prior to his campaign, is the presumptive winner of the New York mayoral primary. On Tuesday evening, Mamdani led the first-choice vote count with 44% of the vote. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, trailing at 36%, conceded the race in a major upset. On Wednesday morning, Mamdani spoke to supporters in an emotional speech in which he quoted Nelson Mandela, saying, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” New Yorkers have a city where they can do more than just struggle, one where those who toil in the night can enjoy the fruits of their labor in the day, where hard work is repaid with a stable life, he continued. The mayor will use their power to reject Donald Trumps fascism, to stop masked ice agents from deporting our mayor, and to govern our city as a model for the Democratic Party, a party where we fight for working people with no apology.” When will all the votes be counted? Due to New York City’s ranked voting system, which allows voters to cast five votes on their ballot, the final tally will take some time. Since none of the candidates received more than 50% of the vote on Tuesday night, ranked choice voting will determine the true winner (though Mamdani is the clear presumptive winner) until a candidate reaches that threshold.According to the Associated Press, ranked-choice tabulations won’t start until July 1, so the city has time to receive mail-in ballots. New Yorkers and other interested parties can stay up-to-date with the latest counts on the New York Times‘ live election result page. Find it here. What to know about Zohran Mamdani Tuesday night’s historic win makes Mandani the first Muslim candidate to ever win the mayoral primary in the state of New York. He did so by running his campaign on issues including making New York City an affordable place for residents, by freezing rent, making childcare free, and making public transportation accessible to everyone. He also wants to increase taxes on big corporations, as well as the wealthiest New Yorkers.Mamdani positioned himself as a candidate who will fight for the people to make their lives better and easiersomething many don’t feel their leaders are all that concerned with at present. He also proved during his campaign that he would not back down in the face of name-calling and propaganda. The young candidate managed to captivate New York voters, a population that’s heavily Jewish, while speaking up for Palestinian rights. In this contentious political climate, that’s not a small task. As the war between Israel and Hamas wages on in Gaza, pro-Palestine speech has been heavily politicized, and even deemed “hate speech” or anti-semetic in some cases. But Mamdani has repeatedly pushed back on the narrative that speaking out against the war is anti-semetic. What has the reaction to Zohran Mamdani’s win been? Mamdani’s presumptive win Tuesday has set off a massive reaction across the country and on social media. There seems to be a strong feeling that the candidate’s win could set off a firestorm of candidates with similar, socialist views being elected elsewhere in the nation.“Congratulations to @zohrankmamdani on an historic victory tonight,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Mamdani, posted on Instagram. “Its time we acknowledge that not all Democrats are the same. Weve got people, theyve got money.” While those who wanted to see the young candidate take the race are thrilled with the presumed victory, not everyone is so pleased. The historic results have sparked outrage among MAGA supporters. Conservative commentator Laura Loomer posted a series of tweets on X in which she floated the idea that a Muslim mayor could lead to attacks on NYC. “There will be another 9/11 in NYC and @ZohranKMamdani will be to blame,” she wrote.New Yorkers forgot all about the victims of 9/11 killed by Muslims,” Loomer continued. “Now a Muslim Communist will be the mayor of New York City. Get out while you can, Loomer wrote, adding the unfounded view that Mamdani is “literally supported by terrorists.” When is the NYC mayor general election? While Mamdani’s presumed win is a huge victory for Democratic socialists, he still has to win the general election. Mamdani will take on Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the lone Republican who entered the race. Sliwa is the founder of The Guardian Angels, a nonprofit known for its volunteer crime-fighting patrols. It’s possible Andrew Cuomo will run again in the general election, too, facing off with Mamdani a second time. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and attorney Jim Walden will run as Independents. The general election will take place this November.
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E-Commerce
A federal judge Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in funding for the build out of electric vehicle chargers in more than a dozen states.U.S. District Judge Tana Lin in Washington state partially granted a preliminary injunction that sought to free up the money approved under then-President Joe Biden that the Trump administration withheld earlier this year. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia sued over the move, arguing that the administration did not have the authority to block the congressionally approved funds. The program was set to allocate $5 billion over five years to various states, of which an estimated $3.3 billion had already been made available.Lin ordered that funding be released in 14 of the states, including in Arizona, California and New York. But she denied granting the preliminary injunction for D.C., Minnesota and Vermont, saying that they did not provide enough evidence that they would face “irreparable harm” if the money wasn’t immediately freed up.Lin said the Trump administration overstepped its constitutional authority when it froze the funding previously approved by Congress in 2021 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.“When the Executive Branch treads upon the will of the Legislative Branch, and when an administrative agency acts contrary to law, it is the Court’s responsibility to remediate the situation and restore the balance of power,” she wrote.The order will go into effect July 2 unless the Trump administration appeals. The Federal Highway Administration did not immediately respond to an email request for comment on the decision.The Trump administration in February directed states to stop spending money for electric vehicle charging under the program. The move was part of a broader push by the Republican president to roll back environmental policies advanced by his Democratic predecessor.States suing the Trump administration said the decision to freeze funding halted projects midstream, requiring immediate court intervention.California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said after the ruling that the Trump administration could not “dismiss programs illegally.”“We are pleased with today’s order blocking the Administration’s unconstitutional attempt to do so, and California looks forward to continuing to vigorously defend itself from this executive branch overreach,” he said in a statement.The Trump administration argued that it was working on new guidance for the program and was only pausing future funding in the meantime.The program was meant to assuage concerns about electric vehicles and build infrastructure along highway corridors first, then address gaps elsewhere once the state highway obligations were met.Some states with projects running under the program have already been reimbursed by the Biden-era federal funds. Others are still contracting for their sites. Still more had halted their plans by the time the Trump administration ordered states to stop their spending. Regardless, getting the chargers installed and operating has been a slow process with contracting challenges, permitting delays and complex electrical upgrades.It was expected that states would fight against the federal government’s efforts to slow the nation’s electric vehicle charger build out. New York, for example, which is part of the lawsuit, has been awarded over $175 million in federal funds from the program, and state officials say $120 million is currently being withheld by the Trump administration. Sudhin Thanawala and Sophie Austin, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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