Latest news with #WolfeHerd
Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Lily James takes aim at Tinder in explosive new dating app biopic ‘Swiped'
The battle for dating app dominance is about to hit the big screen, and it looks anything but romantic. Hulu has dropped the first trailer for 20th Century Studios' biopic Swiped, with Lily James stepping into the role of Whitney Wolfe Herd, the ambitious entrepreneur who shook Silicon Valley by creating Bumble and going head-to-head with Tinder. The film traces Wolfe Herd's rise from a fresh-faced college graduate to a self-made billionaire, charting her determined push into the male-dominated tech industry. Swiped will explore her early days as a co-founder of Tinder, the professional clashes that prompted her departure, and the bold vision that led to Bumble's 2021 stock market debut. James embodies Wolfe Herd with a mix of grit and glamour, showing both the business savvy needed to outmaneuver rivals and the personal sacrifices demanded by the high-stakes world of startup competition. The film also stars Jackson White, Myha'la, Ben Schnetzer, Pierson Fodé, Clea DuVall, Pedro Correa, Ian Colleti, Coral Peña, Dan Stevens, Larkin Woodward, Ana Yi Puig, Olivia Rose Keegan, Joley Fisher, and Gabe Kessler. Directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg and written by Goldenberg, Bill Parker, and Kim Caramele, Swiped blends boardroom drama with pop-culture flair. The story is set against a backdrop of corporate rivalry and digital dating's explosive growth, with the tension between innovation and exploitation running throughout. Swiped will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9 in the Gala Presentations section, before arriving on Hulu in the United States and Disney Plus internationally on September 19. With its mix of power plays, billion-dollar stakes, and personal vendettas, the movie is poised to become one of the year's most talked-about biopics.
Business Insider
06-08-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Bumble's CEO isn't giving up on helping people make new friends
Bumble isn't giving up on helping people find and make new friends. In fact, it's doubling down on Bumble For Friends (BFF) and gearing up to launch a new version of the app in August, the company announced during its second quarter earnings call. Bumble's CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, said the BFF app is "one of our most exciting long-term growth opportunities, especially as demand for friendship, real-world connection, and belonging continues to grow." The new version of the BFF app is built on Geneva, a community-focused social platform Bumble acquired in 2024, as well as Bumble's safety infrastructure, Wolfe Herd said. She added that this version will combine "one-on-one matching and events, with community features to quickly follow, designed to help people build real friendships offline." Bumble acquired Geneva for about $17 million, according to an 8-K filing from July 2024. Wolfe Herd said BFF is a "big priority" for Bumble Inc., which is primarily known for its dating app. "I cannot tell you how excited and how convicted we are in this future," she said. "The organic demand for Bumble For Friends, particularly from Gen Z women and younger millennial women, is extremely exciting." Friend-making apps have been having a moment, too. Startups like 222, Pie, and Timeleft are trying to corner the in-real-life (IRL) market by setting people up with strangers or connecting them with communities in their city. "We are a leading friendship app in the space, and frankly, we're the only one in the dating space that has a friend finding feature at scale, so this gives us a real competitive edge," Wolfe Herd said. Meanwhile, Wolfe Herd got real about Gen Z on Bumble's earnings call. "I think there's a bit of a misconception that Gen Z is some completely different species that doesn't think about love and connection the same way most of humanity does," she said. But the qualms Gen Z feels toward dating apps (such as swiping fatigue, feeling judged, fears of rejection, or safety concerns) are "the same issues that everyone has struggled with online love," Wolfe Herd added. Getting Bumble back on track for 'growth' Bumble reported a 7.6% year-over-year decline in total revenue, with second-quarter revenue decreasing from $268.6 million in 2024 to $248.2 million in 2025. Total paying users declined 8.7% YoY, the company reported. "Four months ago, I returned as CEO of Bumble and reset our strategy for quality over quantity across the whole business," Wolfe Herd said. "We've taken decisive actions over the last quarter. We've removed over $100 million from our cost base by streamlining operations, restructuring headcount, and shifting to a more efficient organic marketing engine." Bumble in June announced plans to lay off 30% of its staff. The company's changes outlined during Wednesday's earnings call are part of Wolfe Herd's plan to position Bumble for "a return to growth." Bumble also announced the appointment of Kevin Cook as CFO, who was previously CFO at data software company Cloudera. Meanwhile, Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge, reported earnings on Tuesday, shining a light on the latter app. "Simply put, Hinge is crushing it," Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff said on the company's earnings call. "Hinge's success should put to rest any doubts about whether the online dating category is out of favor among users."
Mint
14-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Layoff riddle: Why are companies getting worse at letting employees go?
Gift this article Last week's jobs numbers in the US may have shown a drop in the number of pink slips hitting workers' desks in May, but don't be fooled: Layoffs are alive and well in 2025. In the first half of the year, employers in America let go of nearly 745,000 people, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's the second-highest number for the period since 2009—surpassed only by the first six months of 2020, when covid essentially shut down the global economy. Last week's jobs numbers in the US may have shown a drop in the number of pink slips hitting workers' desks in May, but don't be fooled: Layoffs are alive and well in 2025. In the first half of the year, employers in America let go of nearly 745,000 people, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's the second-highest number for the period since 2009—surpassed only by the first six months of 2020, when covid essentially shut down the global economy. The cuts are part of a broader trend. About 20% of S&P 500 companies have fewer employees today than they did a decade ago, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis. Yet, even after having had years of practice slashing payrolls, most companies are still shockingly bad at it. In fact, it is the frequency and volume of workforce cuts that seem to be making them even worse. Normalizing the practice has ended up sucking the humanity right out of it. Also Read: Layoffs are painfully often a cover for corporate foibles Case in point: Dating app Bumble, which last week announced that it was laying off 240 employees—that's 30% of its workforce. Employees received the news via video call and responded with thumbs-down emojis. In response to their reaction, founder and chief executive officer Whitney Wolfe Herd told them, 'Y'all need to calm down." To make matters worse, she added, 'Everyone's going to have to be adults in dealing with this." I'm not sure what kind of response Wolfe Herd expected. A thumbs down is a much more work-appropriate alternative to the digit they could have thrown her way—especially considering what we know about the impact layoffs have on both those let go and those left behind. (My colleague Sarah Green Carmichael has written extensively on these detrimental effects.) Also last week, executives at Microsoft showed their own flavour of callousness when they announced that they would lay off 9,000 workers. That's on top of the 6,000 the company laid off in May. That Microsoft could not figure out the total number it would need to cut just two months earlier suggests both sloppiness and thoughtlessness. Layoff survivors will now live in a constant state of anxiety that additional downsizing could be right around the corner. Artificial intelligence (AI) has only made matters worse. It has become a justification for layoffs, while simultaneously letting companies outsource the work of empathy to a large language model. Also Read: Mass layoffs in Big Tech are an old-guard mistake An executive producer with Microsoft's Xbox, which was heavily impacted by the cuts, wrote a LinkedIn post offering some AI prompts that would 'help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss." He has since deleted the post. Microsoft pointed out the most recently announced cuts are less than 4% of the company's total workforce. That's still thousands of people and is the kind of justification that Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher sees as an increase in 'moral disengagement" on the part of CEOs. She told me that big bosses have become so far removed from the average employee that they 'don't seem to understand what it means for someone to lose their job." Layoffs are increasingly 'stripped of any acknowledgement that harm is being done," she added. It's the layoff edition of a broader phenomenon I have been following among America's CEOs: The end of the era of corporate do-gooderism and make-the-world-a-better-place discourse. Empathetic leadership, all the rage during the covid era, is not part of the conversation anymore. And the lack of respect that employees have subsequently felt from their employers is accelerating a crisis of trust in big business. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come to embody this leadership transformation. In 2022, when the company cut 11,000 employees, Zuckerberg—as was the practice of many business leaders at the time—took accountability for some poor decision making. 'I know this is tough for everyone, and I'm especially sorry to those impacted," he had said back then. Fast forward to January 2025, when Zuckerberg said he was cutting about 5% of staff by moving out 'low-performers." The blame had been shifted. There was no acknowledgement of what such a public statement might mean for the future job hunts of those impacted, and certainly no 'I'm sorry." As Zuckerberg has said, he is done apologizing. Layoffs are a reality of corporate America today, and they're not going away. But that doesn't mean they need to be cruel. As Sucher told me, companies preparing for a cut should have a mantra: Do it for the right reason, in the right way. ©Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering corporate America. Topics You May Be Interested In
Business Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Companies are getting worse at laying people off
Last week's jobs numbers may have shown a drop in the number of pink slips hitting workers' desks in May, but don't be fooled: Layoffs are alive and well in 2025. In the first half of the year, US employers let go of nearly 745,000 people, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's the second-highest number for the period since 2009 – surpassed only by the first six months of 2020, when Covid essentially shut down the global economy. The cuts are part of a broader trend. About 20 per cent of S&P 500 companies have fewer employees today than they did a decade ago, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis. Yet even after years of practice slashing payrolls, most companies are still shockingly bad at it. In fact, it's the frequency and volume of workforce cuts that seem to be making them even worse; normalising the practice has ended up sucking the humanity right out of it. Case in point: dating app Bumble, which last week announced that it was laying off 240 employees, 30 per cent of its workforce. When employees, who received the news via video call, responded with thumbs-down emojis, founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told them, 'Y'all need to calm down,' adding, 'Everyone's going to have to be adults in dealing with this.' I'm not sure what kind of response Wolfe Herd expected. A thumbs down is a much more work-appropriate alternative to the digit they could have thrown her way – especially considering what we know about the impact layoffs have on both those let go and those left behind. (My colleague Sarah Green Carmichael has written extensively on these detrimental effects.) BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Also last week, executives at Microsoft showed their own flavour of callousness when they announced they would lay off 9,000 workers. That's on top of the 6,000 the company laid off in May. That Microsoft couldn't figure out the total number it would need to cut two months earlier suggests both sloppiness and thoughtlessness. Layoff survivors will now live in a constant state of anxiety that additional downsizing could be right around the corner. Artificial intelligence (AI) has only made matters worse. It's become a justification for layoffs, while also letting companies outsource the work of empathy to a large language model. An executive producer with Microsoft's Xbox, which was heavily impacted by the cuts, wrote a LinkedIn post offering some AI prompts that would 'help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss.' He's since deleted the post. Microsoft pointed out the most recently announced cuts are less than 4 per cent of the company's total workforce. That's still thousands of people, and is the kind of justification Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher sees as an increase in 'moral disengagement' on the part of CEOs. She told me the big bosses have become so far removed from the average employee that they 'don't seem to understand what it means for someone to lose their job'. Layoffs are increasingly 'stripped of any acknowledgement that harm is being done,' she added. It's the layoff edition of a broader phenomenon I've been following among America's CEOs: The end of the era of corporate do-gooderism and make-the-world-a-better-place discourse. Empathetic leadership, all the rage during the Covid era, isn't part of the conversation anymore. And the lack of respect that employees have subsequently felt from their employers is accelerating a crisis of trust in big business. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come to embody this leadership transformation. In 2022, when the company cut 11,000 employees, Zuckerberg – as was the practice of many CEOs at the time – took accountability for poor decision making. 'I know this is tough for everyone, and I'm especially sorry to those impacted,' he said. Fast forward to January 2025, when Zuckerberg said he was cutting about 5 per cent of staff by moving out 'low-performers'. The blame had been shifted. There was no acknowledgement of what such a public statement might mean for the future job hunts of those impacted, and certainly no 'I'm sorry'. As Zuckerberg has said, he is done apologising. Layoffs are a reality of corporate America, and they're not going away. But that doesn't mean they need to be cruel. As Sucher told me, companies preparing for a cut should have a mantra: For the right reason, in the right way. BLOOMBERG
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Business Standard
26-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Bumble plans to layoff about 30% of global workforce in major overhaul
Online dating platform Bumble plans to lay off about 240 employees, or roughly 30 per cent of its global workforce. In a securities filing, Bumble disclosed that its board approved the cuts this week as it realigns its operating structure to optimise execution on its strategic priorities. The Austin, Texas-based company expects to see $40 million in annual cost savings spanning from the workforce reductions, much of which it says it will invest in product and technology development. These decisions were not made lightly, and we are deeply grateful for the contributions of every employee impacted," Bumble said in a statement sent to The Associated Press Wednesday adding that it was now focused on moving forward in a way that strengthens our core business and "positions us for future growth. Shares for Bumble soared more than 23 per cent following the news. Its stock traded at just over $6.40 as of Wednesday afternoon. Bumble did not immediately specify when it would implement the layoffs or which roles would be affected. But its securities filing signalled that the process would extend into later in the year noting that it expects to incur costs related to the layoffs, including severance for impacted employees, amounting to anywhere between $13 million to $18 million primarily in its third and fourth fiscal quarters. In a note to employees Wednesday, Bumble CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd wrote that Bumble, like the online dating industry itself, is at an inflection point. She noted that the company has been rebuilding in recent months, which requires hard decisions. Wolfe Herd founded Bumble in 2014, just two years after co-founding Tinder in 2012. She had previously served as Bumble's CEO from 2020 through January 2024, and stepped back into the top seat in March. Bumble has struggled on the market since going public in 2021. While shares popped up on Wednesday, its stock is still down more than 35 per cent over the last year and nearly 92 per cent since its February 2021 debut. In its most recent first quarter earnings, Bumble reported a total revenue of about USD 247 million down nearly 8 per cent from the same period a year ago. The company said Wednesday that it expects to rake between USD 244 million and USD 249 million for the second quarter of its 2025 fiscal year. That's up from previous estimates but still lower than the USD 269 million it reported for its second quarter in 2024.
