Even if “Vicente Acquisition Partners” sounds Italian, it isn’t. After a consortium of bidders close to the Berlusconi clan rumored to have tried to sell Grindr at the beginning of the year, there are now three U.S. heteros who brought the dating app home to Trump’s America.

According to their statements, their investor group with the illustrious name paid the former Chinese owners of Beijing Kunlun Tech, who were forced by the Trump administration to part with the shares in the world’s most popular dating app, the equivalent of around 540 million euros for 98.59 percent of the Grindr shares. No wonder, data leaks and other leaks are constantly making the rounds at Grindr – even one or two allegedly clean Republican guys have had to leave the political arena just for a few good Grindr chats.

In an interview with the US magazine Advocate, two of the three shareholders of the investor group known by name so far have already come out as heterosexual. Jeff Bonforte will be the new managing director, Rick Marini will manage the operative business, and Gary Hsueh will be chief financial officer. According to the report, the three had already tried to buy the app last year, but failed. They made their considerable fortune in Silicon Valley with Yahoo! and Flickr.

Gay app to recover through heterosexuality

“I don’t think you have to be gay to have a strong, healthy and safe LGBTQ community,” Bonforte told The Advocate when asked why the three are interested in the company even though they are not queer. They have been well aware of the app’s scandals and now want to work on its further development with a three-item plan, without changing the basic idea of gay Israeli-American founder Joel Simkhai. Bonforte:

“We don’t want to hurt Grindr. It’s so good!”

Well, let’s keep our fingers crossed that this immensely expensive investment is worth it. For the Chinese, the bumpy intermezzo was a lucrative adventure. Despite scandals and pressure from the US government, Beijing Kunlun Tech was able to increase the value of Grindr to 323 million Euro, minus the amount to purchase it, which represents an increase in value of around 150 percent in just four years.

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