Bending Spoons, the Milan-based tech conglomerate known for acquiring AOL and Vimeo, went public on the Nasdaq this week, briefly reaching a market capitalization exceeding $25 billion. Although the stock has since slipped slightly, its valuation remains more than double its previous private valuation of $11 billion, signaling investor confidence in the group's strategy. Bending Spoons' portfolio includes digital brands such as Meetup, Eventbrite, and WeTransfer, serving over 500 million monthly active users and more than 9 million paying customers, according to the IPO filing.
Hybrid strategy between private equity and long-term retention
Bending Spoons' approach shares similarities with private equity, but with a key difference: the company retains the brands it acquires, aiming to make them more profitable through technology, artificial intelligence, price increases, and workforce cuts. These moves have sparked controversy, especially with Evernote, whose user base was deeply attached. However, co-founder Matteo Danieli stated that customer retention has remained "remarkably stable." Unlike private equity, Bending Spoons claims it "aims to hold forever" and has never sold an acquired business, building a live portfolio rather than a tech graveyard.
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Recent acquisitions and impact on employment
After acquiring Evernote in 2022 (closed in 2023), the company followed with Meetup, Mosaic Group, StreamYard, Issuu, and WeTransfer in 2024. In November 2024, it announced the acquisition of Brightcove for $233 million in cash. The following year, Bending Spoons bought Vimeo for $1.38 billion and AOL from Yahoo for an undisclosed amount, as well as Eventbrite for roughly $500 million. All these deals were accompanied by layoffs: of the 1,830 people added through the last three acquisitions, only a few hundred are expected to remain after restructuring planned by end of 2026. Layoffs also hit Vimeo's entire video team. For more on corporate restructuring in tech, see the article on Alibaba banning the use of the Claude Code AI tool.
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Growth model: productivity and internal selection
Despite the core workforce remaining stable at around 620 "Spooners," productivity has soared: revenue per full-time employee rose from $1.12 million in 2023 to $2.57 million in 2025, aided by AI advancements. This allowed the company to avoid the SaaS downturn and look ahead optimistically: "as more businesses struggle to adapt, our ability to expand the earnings of acquired businesses may improve," Bending Spoons noted. The company analyzed about 200 acquisition opportunities in 2025 and completed six deals, with a pipeline of over 1,000 potential targets. For a comparison with other tech acquisition strategies, see the article on Google preparing to launch a new Google Home Display.
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Founders and post-IPO future
The four co-founders – Matteo Danieli, Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, and Luca Querella – retain over 80% of voting power and have become billionaires on paper. Their strategy remains selective: in 2025, out of 800,000 applications for core roles, only 286 were hired. The IPO is a milestone, not an end: Bending Spoons will continue acquiring digital brands with real user behavior, integrating them into a centralized system, and optimizing them. As Joe Hyrkin, former CEO of Issuu, wrote: "'Old internet brands' is the wrong frame. They acquire products with real customer behavior, then integrate them into a system of product, engineering, data, monetization, AI, and operating discipline." For more on Bending Spoons' history, check the Wikipedia page.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/05/what-is-bending-spoons-everything-to-know-about-aols-acquirer
