Bumble Seller Says Blackstone Made an Offer He ‘Couldn’t Refuse’

MagicLab founder Andrey Andreev once longed for an initial public offering and a Nasdaq listing for his company’s popular dating apps, including Bumble.

But then Blackstone Group Inc. came along “with a nice and beautiful offer,” Andreev, 45, said in an interview at a London hotel. “I couldn’t refuse.”

In November, the private equity firm took a majority stake in MagicLab at a valuation of about $3 billion. Andreev, who founded the company in 2006, sold his stake and stepped away from the business as part of the deal, which closed this week. Now, with at least $1.5 billion in ...