At the time of its high-profile Nasdaq debut in July, Bending Spoons was largely viewed as an obscure, unconventional holding company out of Italy. Known primarily for holding a portfolio of older, legacy internet names and digital tools such as AOL, Vimeo, Eventbrite, and Evernote, the Milan-based firm initially sparked curiosity rather than intense Wall Street enthusiasm.
However, less than four months after that initial public offering, the company has transformed into a surprising and dominant home for former high-flying software startups that have been abruptly thrust aside by the generative artificial intelligence boom. This aggressive mergers and acquisitions strategy received a massive, high-profile endorsement this week from the most famous and respected holding company on the planet: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Berkshire Hathaway, which Bending Spoons leadership describes as a "longstanding inspiration" for its unique corporate strategy, has now poured more than $900 million into the tech firm. This includes a newly disclosed $330 million equity stake revealed on Wednesday. Wall Street reacted enthusiastically to the vote of confidence, sending Bending Spoons’ stock surging by 41% before a portion of those gains pared back later in the week. The market capitalization of the company currently hovers at approximately $30 billion.
Financial analysts immediately recognized the significance of the investment. In a report published following the announcement, analysts at Mizuho wrote that Berkshire’s decision to add to its position just months after the initial public offering, especially at current valuation levels, provides a profound vote of confidence in the Bending Spoons business model from one of the world’s most respected long-term investors.
Yet, alongside the celebration of major financial backing comes the stark reality of the firm’s operational playbook: steep job cuts and aggressive restructuring. In August, Bending Spoons announced its agreement to acquire workflow software provider Airtable for roughly $1.3 billion—a valuation nearly 90% below Airtable’s peak valuation achieved in late 2021. Following up on that move, Bending Spoons announced that a large portion of the pre-acquisition team from Airtable would be departing the company equipped with substantial separation packages. Similar rounds of layoffs were previously implemented across other portfolio acquisitions, including Evernote, Vimeo, and WeTransfer.
For the broader technology industry, the rapid rise and aggressive maneuvers of Bending Spoons represent a striking example of how quickly corporate fortunes are shifting in the age of artificial intelligence. As new AI agents powered by advanced large language models rapidly displace traditional software developers and the digital products they spent years building, the landscape is undergoing a severe transformation. With generative AI powerhouses like Anthropic and OpenAI marching aggressively toward trillion-dollar valuations, modern businesses are increasingly placing complex and valuable workflows directly into the hands of artificial intelligence. This shift has come at the direct expense of a host of software-as-a-service names, helping fuel a market phenomenon that industry watchers have dubbed the "SaaSpocalypse."
The ripple effects are visible across public markets. Shares of major software institutions such as Intuit, HubSpot, and Adobe have all tumbled by at least 30% over the course of the year. Meanwhile, a long list of private software-as-a-service companies that once reigned as venture capital darlings are now struggling desperately to secure fresh funding, as the public market shows virtually no appetite for software initial public offerings. Underscoring this distress, Bending Spoons agreed last month to acquire collaboration software vendor Miro—a company that was once valued at a staggering $17.5 billion—for a mere $1.36 billion.
Industry veterans note that the cultural sentiment in Silicon Valley has shifted dramatically. Ethan Kurzweil, the founder and managing partner at Chemistry VC and a veteran software investor, highlighted the unforgiving nature of the current tech economy. Kurzweil, who notes that he regularly uses Airtable and recognizes that there are still plenty of good software-as-a-service products on the market led by exceptionally solid teams, emphasized that these companies simply are not on the technological frontier anymore. "You’re either like a hot thing or you’re nothing," Kurzweil said.
An App Turned Acquirer
The story of Bending Spoons dates back to 2013, when it was launched by a trio of friends: Luca Ferrari, who serves as chief executive officer, alongside Matteo Danieli and Francesco Patarnello. The venture began humbly after an initial mobile application they created, called Evertale, failed to gain meaningful traction in the consumer market. Left with just $40,000 in capital, the founders made the pivotal decision to build a sustainable operating company rather than continuing to pour money into products nobody wanted, according to the company’s initial public offering prospectus.
While the firm spent its early years quietly building its operational foundation, its trajectory shifted dramatically toward aggressive dealmaking in recent years. The acquisition spree kicked off with the purchase of Evernote in 2022, followed by Brightcove in 2024. The pace quickened substantially in 2025 with the acquisitions of Vimeo, AOL, and Eventbrite.
The company officially took its operations public on June 30, successfully raising approximately $1.7 billion by pricing its shares at $29 each before debuting on the Nasdaq the following day. The stock closed out the week at $47.07, reflecting robust investor interest in the firm’s unconventional approach.
Prior to Bending Spoons’ aggressive entry into enterprise software, the dominant acquirers in the space over the past decade were private equity behemoths such as Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners. Those traditional private equity players focused primarily on identifying what they perceived as undervalued software-as-a-service companies. Through a combination of aggressive cost cuts, targeted efficiency improvements, and corporate rollups, their goal was to transform these targets into polished assets that could eventually be flipped or taken public at significantly higher valuations.
Bending Spoons, however, is operating from an entirely different playbook. Rather than focusing on eventual exits or quick resales, the firm aims to generate long-term profits from the businesses it acquires, drawing inspiration from the classic Warren Buffett model of compounding value. Yet, unlike Berkshire Hathaway’s traditionally diversified holdings, Bending Spoons maintains an exclusive focus on technology, implementing an exceptionally hands-on approach to its software architecture, daily operations, and personnel structures.
Nick Mehta, the former chief executive officer of cloud software vendor Gainsight, pointed out that traditional private equity firms are currently finding their hands tied because they "got their nose bloodied." Mehta, who successfully sold Gainsight to Vista Equity Partners in 2020, noted that these traditional funds paid much higher historical prices and are now saddled with so many troubled companies that taking bold new investment swings has become exceedingly difficult.
While representatives for Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners did not respond to requests for interviews, Bending Spoons noted in a statement to CNBC that it has not been outbid for a target acquisition target in several years.
As the company steadily expanded its footprint across the software-as-a-service landscape, Mehta observed that "Bending Spooned" has effectively become a new verb used across Silicon Valley to describe once-proud tech companies getting scooped up for pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, many founders and early investors find themselves trapped in the current environment, noting that while investors are eager to exit, viable buyers are scarce because anything developed prior to the advent of ChatGPT is increasingly viewed as legacy technology.
Lloyd Walmsley, an equity analyst at Mizuho, emphasized that the operational model deployed by Bending Spoons stands in stark contrast to traditional buyout strategies. Pointing out the depth of the firm’s operational involvement and its willingness to execute substantial product overhauls, Walmsley noted that it is highly atypical for traditional private equity firms to implement changes anywhere near this scale.
For the end users of the software products that Bending Spoons acquires, these structural overhauls often bring immediate and painful changes, most notably in the form of sudden price hikes. In April 2023, just months after finalizing its acquisition of Evernote, Bending Spoons increased the annual price for personal subscriptions from $70 to $130. Subsequent restructuring altered the pricing tiers even further, charging $100 for a stripped-down starter plan and raising the cost of advanced tiers significantly compared to previous legacy pricing.
Walmsley recalled his own initial consumer reaction upon seeing the steep price hikes, admitting that he briefly considered switching to Microsoft’s competing note-taking application, OneNote. Ultimately, however, he chose to stick with Evernote, pointing to the underlying strength of the product’s utility. Bending Spoons is exceptionally savvy at identifying software assets where users derive substantial intrinsic value and where the friction of switching to an alternative platform is exceedingly high, making the higher subscription prices manageable relative to the cost of migration.
Looking ahead, Bending Spoons plans to channel the ongoing profits generated by its expanding portfolio back into future growth initiatives. CEO Luca Ferrari noted in an interview that the overwhelming majority of this reinvestment will be directed toward executing additional corporate acquisitions.
Ferrari explained that the company identifies specific operational opportunities for improvement that can be successfully unlocked over the first few years following an acquisition, after which the businesses settle into whatever organic growth is naturally supported by their respective markets.
For Berkshire Hathaway and the broader group of investors backing Bending Spoons, the ultimate long-term bet remains unproven. The acquired software products must continue to remain sufficiently desirable that enterprise and consumer customers are willing to continue paying higher prices at a time when artificial intelligence is compressing profit margins across nearly every corner of the broader software sector.
In its inaugural earnings report as a public company released in August, Bending Spoons reported that its total revenue had more than doubled compared to the previous year, surpassing $700 million. Company executives noted that this growth was driven almost entirely by its acquisition strategy, while net income climbed 171% to $177 million.
Those figures were tallied before the multi-billion-dollar Airtable deal had closed and prior to the agreement to acquire Miro. In the upcoming quarters and years, Wall Street will closely monitor whether the firm’s aggressive operational structure can successfully revitalize legacy software in an era dominated by artificial intelligence.
During the company’s August earnings call, an analyst pressed leadership on whether the Airtable acquisition signaled a permanent strategic pivot toward heavier enterprise software deals. Ferrari clarified that approximately half of Bending Spoons’ revenue was already originating from professional business lines, largely channeled through Brightcove and Vimeo, both of which feature robust enterprise components. He explained that the recent surge of focus on enterprise software was driven less by a rigid long-term mandate and more by the simple reality of where attractive value could be found following a severe market selloff.
Ferrari concluded that most enterprise software-as-a-service businesses had historically been valued at irrationally high levels, price points that his leadership team never believed made fundamental sense.
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