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Bending Spoons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Playond)

Bending Spoons S.p.A.
TypePublic
Nasdaq: BSP
IndustrySoftware as a service
Founded2013; 13 years ago (2013) in Copenhagen, Denmark
Founders
  • Luca Ferrari
  • Francesco Patarnello
  • Matteo Danieli
  • Luca Querella
  • Tomasz Greber
Headquarters
Milan
,
Italy
Products
Revenue
  • Increase US$1.31 billion (2025)
  • US$671 million (2024)
  • Increase US$278 million (2025)
  • US$127 million (2024)
  • Decrease US$−0.2 million (2025)
  • US$89 million (2024)
Number of employees
  • Increase 1,743 (2025)
  • 712 (2024)
Websitebendingspoons.com
Footnotes
[1][2][3]

Bending Spoons S.p.A. is an Italian technology conglomerate founded in 2013. Based in Milan, the company acquires products with existing product‑market fit[4][5] (such as AOL, Eventbrite, Evernote, komoot, Meetup, Tractive, Vimeo, and WeTransfer) and manages them for long-term ownership, often increasing revenue and lowering expenses (including by reducing headcount).[6][7] The company employs full-stack developers to rewrite acquired codebases using artificial intelligence, proprietary platform tools, and open-source software (often Python, FastAPI, and TypeScript).[8][9] On July 1, 2026, the company became a public company via an initial public offering on the American stock market.

History

[edit]

Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, and Matteo Danieli, worked on an unsuccessful venture-funded product startup called Evertale. They were left with $40,000, which became the seed capital for Bending Spoons in June 2013, also founded in Copenhagen.[10][11][12] The company name was inspired by a scene from the science fiction movie The Matrix.[10][13] The company moved to Milan in 2014.[12]

On 17 April 2020, the Italian government released a statement on its website announcing that Bending Spoons had been selected to design and develop Italy's official COVID-19 contact tracing app, Immuni.[14][15] The app was released on 1 June 2020.[16] Immuni was later decommissioned on December 31, 2022.[17]

In 2025, the company received 800,000 job applications and made 286 hires.[18][19]

In April 2026, it was revealed that Bending Spoons had picked banks to organize a potential $20 billion U.S. initial public offering in 2026.[20] On June 8, the company filed a Form F-1 with the SEC to list on Nasdaq's Global Select Market under the ticker symbol BSP, targeting a valuation of approximately $20 billion and seeking to raise $1.5 billion.[1][21] The filing disclosed revenue of $1.31 billion for full-year 2025 and $601 million for the first quarter of 2026, compared with $259 million in the same period a year earlier.[22] Bending Spoons shares opened for trading on July 1. The company raised $1.68 billion, pricing shares at $29.00. During its first day of trading, the stock surged nearly 40% to close at $40.50 per share.[23] The listing follows a growth strategy focused on acquiring and restructuring over 50 legacy digital brands, including AOL, Evernote and WeTransfer.[24]

Acquisitions

[edit]

Bending Spoons' earliest acquisitions include video editing application Splice, which it acquired from GoPro in 2018[25], and AI-powered photo editing platform Remini in 2021[26].

In September 2022, Bending Spoons acquired FiLMiC[27] and converted its video-recording app FiLMiC Pro to a subscription revenue model.[28] In December 2023, the original FiLMiC team were laid off, and development of FiLMiC Pro was continued in-house by Bending Spoons.[29]

In November 2022, Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Evernote.[30] The acquisition was concluded in January 2023.[31] In July 2023, Evernote laid off all of its existing staff and announced it would relocate to Europe to be closer to Bending Spoons' headquarters.[32] Also in 2023, the company acquired Alight Creative, creators of video editing software Alight Motion.[33]

Bending Spoons made a series of acquisitions in 2024. In January, it acquired the assets of New York City-based mobile app developer Mosaic Group from IAC Inc.; subsequently, Mosaic's entire workforce of 330 staff members was laid off, as they were not part of the acquisition.[34][35] Also that month, Bending Spoons acquired Meetup, a social media platform for organizing in-person and virtual activities.[36][37] In April, the company announced that it would acquire Hopin, owner of the popular live streaming studio StreamYard.[38] Later in July, the company announced it had acquired digital publishing platform Issuu.[39] Also in July, the company agreed to acquire the Dutch file transfer service WeTransfer, then announced in September they were laying off 75% of the company's workforce.[40][41] In November, the company agreed to acquire video platform company Brightcove for $233 million.[42] In March, Brightcove laid off 33% of employees.[43]

In 2025, Bending Spoons acquired several companies, including Komoot in March for near €300 million, soon after which it laid off three quarters of the staff.[44][45] The company also acquired professional services software provider Harvest in June, California-based MileIQ for $233 million in July,[46] video sharing platform Vimeo in September for $1.38 billion, and AOL in October for $1.5 billion.[47][48] In December, the acquisition of Eventbrite for approximately $500 million was announced, which closed on March 10, 2026.[49][50] The following month, Vimeo laid off most of their staff, including the entire video team.[51] AOL later laid off more than 100 employees in February 2026.[52] In April, Bending Spoons expanded its portfolio into the IoT and pet-tech sector by acquiring Tractive, an Austrian company specialized in GPS tracking and health monitoring for pets. The acquisition closed in May 2026.[53][54]

Acquisition history

[edit]
Date Company Products Purpose Country Value (USD) References
2018 Vemory Inc./Path 36 LLC[note 1] Splice App Mobile video editing  United States — [55][56][57]
June 2021 BigWinePot Inc. Remini Mobile photo editing  China — [58]
September 2, 2022 FiLMiC Inc. Filmic Pro Mobile video capture and editing  United States — [27]
DoubleTake
Filmic Firstlight Mobile photo capture and editing
November 16, 2022 Evernote Corporation Evernote Note-taking and task-management  United States 200,000,000 [31]
2023 Alight Creative Inc. Alight Motion Mobile video motion design  Republic of Korea —
May 30, 2023 Humamy S.r.l. Vegetarian meal home delivery  Italy — [59]
January 10, 2024 Mosaic Group/Apalon[note 2] Clime Weather forecasting  United States 100,000,000 [34]
iTranslate Translation, language learning
Robokiller Spam call filtering
January 11, 2024 Meetup Social networking  United States — [36]
April 9, 2024 Hopin StreamYard Live streaming studio  United Kingdom — [60]
July 19, 2024 Issuu Electronic publishing  Denmark — [39]
July 31, 2024 WeTransfer File transferring  Netherlands — [40]
January 10, 2025 Loomly Social media management  United States — [61]
February 4, 2025 Brightcove Video hosting  United States 223,000,000 [42]
March 20, 2025 Komoot Navigation  Germany — [44]
June 10, 2025 Iridesco LLC Harvest Time tracking software  United States —
July 8, 2025 MileIQ Mileage tracking  United States 223,000,000 [62]
September 10, 2025 Vimeo Video hosting  United States 1,380,000,000 [48]
October 29, 2025 AOL[note 3] Email services  United States 1,400,000,000 [63]
March 10, 2026 Eventbrite Ticket marketplace  United States 500,000,000 [50]
May 18, 2026 Tractive Pet monitoring  Austria 900,000,000 [54]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ Acquired from GoPro
  2. ↑ Acquired from IAC/InterActiveCorp
  3. ↑ Acquired from Yahoo Inc.

Playond

[edit]
Logo of the defunct Playond mobile gaming subscription service.

In 2019, Bending Spoons launched a mobile gaming subscription titled Playond. The service provided subscribers access to a catalog of premium iOS games, competing with similar platforms like Apple Arcade or GameClub.[64] Some criticised the service for re-releasing games which previously used a one-off payment model under a subscription, sometimes resetting user progress or locking the user out of games they had previously bought after the licensing rights had been moved to Bending Spoons.[65] Notable titles at launch included Crashlands, Morphite, Sleep Attack, Daggerhood, and Jydge. All games also allowed for limited free play with an 'energy' system, to entice new users to subscribe.[66][67]

In March 2020, Bending Spoons announced the closure of the Playond service with the titles in their library being returned to the App Store pages of their original developers. As a result of the closure, many games briefly became free-to-play as a result of their servers being shut down.[68]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "Bending Spoons S.p.A. Registration statement for certain foreign private issuers (Form F-1)". SEC.gov. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 8 June 2026. Archived from the original on 8 June 2026. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
  2. ↑ Zargani, Luisa (9 December 2021). "Renzo Rosso's Red Circle Investments Takes Stake in Bending Spoons". Women's Wear Daily.
  3. ↑ Prescott, Katie (30 November 2025). "Luca Ferrari: Europe needs to smash the language barrier". The Times. Retrieved 4 December 2025.
  4. ↑ "Hundreds of millions in revenue and three acquisitions in 2024 — what's behind Bending Spoons' success?". Sifted. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  5. ↑ Griffith, Erin (30 June 2026). "The Company Reviving AOL, Vimeo and Other Internet Oldies Amid the A.I. Boom". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 July 2026.
  6. ↑ Foley, John (25 June 2025). "Bending Spoons tries out an odd kind of financial magic trick". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  7. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (8 September 2024). "Bending Spoons plans to lay off 75% of WeTransfer staff after acquisition". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  8. ↑ Gustafson, CJ (11 June 2026). "Bending Spoons IPO: S1 Breakdown". Mostly Metrics. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
  9. ↑ Orosz, Gergely (23 July 2025). "Twisting the rules of building software: Bending Spoons (the team behind Evernote)". newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  10. 1 2 Novarini, Matteo (17 February 2025). "Matrix, la prima startup andata male e l'unicorno italiano: a tu per tu con Luca Ferrari, ad di Bending Spoons". Forbes Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  11. ↑ O'Brien, Amy (11 April 2024). "Hundreds of millions in revenue and three acquisitions in 2024 — what's behind Bending Spoons' success?". Sifted. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  12. 1 2 Rocco, Gabriella (27 January 2024). "La startup milanese Bending Spoons chiude un round da 200 milioni e compra un'azienda americana". la Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  13. ↑ Pollina, Elvira (21 October 2024). "Italian tech company Bending Spoons has eye on US for potential IPO". Reuters. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  14. ↑ Pollina, Elvira (1 April 2020). "Italy tests contact-tracing app to speed lockdown exit". Reuters. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  15. ↑ Ministry of Health. "Contact tracing: Arcuri firma ordinanza per app italiana". www.salute.gov.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  16. ↑ Italian Minister for Technological Innovation (3 June 2020). "IMMUNI APP available for downloading on the APPLE and GOOGLE stores". innovazione.gov.it. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  17. ↑ Salute, Ministero della. "Dismissione Piattaforma contact tracing digitale e APP IMMUNI". www.salute.gov.it (in Italian). Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  18. ↑ Cohen, Ben (11 July 2026). "The Mind-Bending Company That Gets a Million Job Applications—and Rejects 99.9%". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 26 July 2026.
  19. ↑ Burleigh, Emma. "The $21 billion company behind Eventbrite, Vimeo, and AOL has just revealed how it picked 286 out of 800,000 job applications". Fortune. Retrieved 26 July 2026.
  20. ↑ "Milan tech firm Bending Spoons picks banks for $20 billion US listing, sources say". CNA. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  21. ↑ Schneider, Jaron (9 June 2026). "Vimeo, WeTransfer, and Filmic Owner Bending Spoons is Going Public". PetaPixel. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
  22. ↑ "Bending Spoons, the Italian app acquirer behind AOL, Evernote, Vimeo, and WeTransfer, files for a U.S. IPO". Fortune. 8 June 2026. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  23. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/aol-owner-to-go-public-at-over-18-billion-valuation-d00f302c
  24. ↑ "How Bending Spoons built a $23bn tech empire from struggling brands". www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 5 July 2026. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  25. ↑ Prokofjev, Alex. "Bending Spoons: the lean, mean M&A machine approaching IPO & $1B EBITDA. 4 ways in which the story can evolve". RollUpEurope. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  26. ↑ Heim, Anna (25 January 2026). "What is Bending Spoons? The little-known firm behind Vimeo's sweeping layoffs". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  27. 1 2 "FiLMiC & Bending Spoons Join Forces. Changes to Subscription Model". Newsshooter. 4 September 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  28. ↑ Voss, Olaf von (8 September 2022). "FiLMiC Pro Acquired by Bending Spoons – New Subscription Model". CineD. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  29. ↑ Davis, Wes (3 December 2023). "Bending Spoons confirmed it laid off all 22 of Filmic's original staff". The Verge. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  30. ↑ Roth, Emma (16 November 2022). "Evernote's getting acquired by mobile developer Bending Spoons". The Verge.
  31. 1 2 "Evernote has been acquired — here's how its new owner can fix it". TheNextWeb. 6 January 2023. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  32. ↑ Purdy, Kevin (10 July 2023). "Evernote, the memory app people forgot about, lays off entire US staff". Ars Technica. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  33. ↑ "Matthew Feinberg's schedule for BEA2024". bea2024.sched.com. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  34. 1 2 Leach, Kamaron (10 January 2024). "IAC Divests Mosaic Apps to Bending Spoons in Deal Valued Above $100 Million". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  35. ↑ "Italy's Bending Spoons acquires Mosaic Group's digital assets from IAC". Reuters. 10 January 2024.
  36. 1 2 Roth, Emma (11 January 2024). "Meetup got acquired by Bending Spoons". The Verge. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  37. ↑ Ferrari, Luca (8 January 2024). "A New Home for Meetup". Meetup Blog. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  38. ↑ O'Brien, Amy (11 April 2024). "Hundreds of millions in revenue and three acquisitions in 2024 — what's behind Bending Spoons' success?". Sifted. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  39. 1 2 "Digital publishing platform Issuu acquired by Bending Spoons". Editor & Publisher. 22 July 2024. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  40. 1 2 Pollina, Elvira (31 July 2024). Weir, Keith (ed.). "Italy's Bending Spoons buys file sharing service WeTransfer". Reuters. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  41. ↑ "Bending Spoons plans to lay off 75% of WeTransfer staff after acquisition". TechCrunch. 8 September 2024. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  42. 1 2 Chesto, Jon (25 November 2024). "Video company Brightcove sold for $233 million to Italian app developer". Boston Globe. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
  43. ↑ Priestley, Jenny. "Brightcove announces layoffs following acquisition by Bending Spoons". TVB Europe. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
  44. 1 2 "Bending Spoons Acquires komoot". BusinessWire. Retrieved 20 March 2025.
  45. ↑ Ksienrzyk, Lisa (8 May 2025). "Komoot: Was hinter dem Verkauf steckt". WirtschaftsWoche.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  46. ↑ "Bending Spoons compra Vimeo per 1,38 miliardi di dollari". Forbes Italia (in Italian). 10 September 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  47. ↑ "Life at Bending Spoons: Billion-dollar acquisitions, lavish offsites and an 'utter disrespect for elders'". Sifted. Retrieved 23 October 2025.
  48. 1 2 "Bending Spoons Acquires Vimeo". Bloomberg. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
  49. ↑ Temkin, Marina (2 December 2025). "Bending Spoons agrees to buy Eventbrite for $500M to revive stalled brand". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 December 2025.
  50. 1 2 IQ, S&P Capital (10 March 2026). "Bending Spoons US Inc. completed the acquisition of Eventbrite, Inc. (NYSE:EB)". MarketScreener. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  51. ↑ Gil, Bruce. "Vimeo Lays Off 'Most' of Its Staff, Allegedly Includes 'the Entire Video Team'". Gizmodo. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  52. ↑ JoJack, Beth (20 February 2026). "AOL to lay off 108 tied to Reston office". Virginia Business. Retrieved 21 February 2026.
  53. ↑ bebeez (31 March 2026). "Bending Spoons si compra Tractive, la scaleup austriaca leader nel tracciamento della posizione degli animali domestici". BeBeez (in Italian). Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  54. 1 2 Ben-Hutta, Gabriella (18 May 2026). "Bending Spoons closes acquisition of Tractive". Coverager - Insurance news and insights. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  55. ↑ Cargnelutti, Federico (8 July 2025). "Freemium done right: the Splice story". Substack.
  56. ↑ "An Update on Evernote Pricing and Upcoming Features". Evernote. 28 April 2023.
  57. ↑ GoPro [@GoPro] (23 December 2018). "The Splice app is now under the watch of another company, Bending Spoons" (Tweet). Retrieved 3 July 2026 – via Twitter.
  58. ↑ "Research Update: Bending Spoons 'B+' Rating Affirmed On Vimeo Acquisition Despite Elevated Leverage; Outlook Stable". S&P Global Ratings. 26 September 2025.
  59. ↑ Deugeni, Andrea (30 March 2023). "Bending Spoons entra nel food vegetariano e prende il controllo di Humamy". Milano Finanza (in Italian).
  60. ↑ "Bending Spoons to Acquire StreamYard, Leader in Live-Streaming and Video-Recording Solutions". Business Wire. 9 April 2024.
  61. ↑ "Willkie Advises Bending Spoons on Acquisition of Loomly". Willkie Farr & Gallagher. 10 January 2025.
  62. ↑ "Willkie Advises Bending Spoons on Acquisition of MileIQ". Willkie Farr & Gallagher. 8 July 2025.
  63. ↑ Martin, Iain. "Italy's Bending Spoons Acquires AOL From Apollo". Forbes. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  64. ↑ Frater, Luke (21 November 2019). "Playond is the indie alternative to Apple Arcade in the quest to fix mobile gaming". www.pocketgamer.com. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  65. ↑ Bird, Campbell (25 September 2019). "Playond isn't a scam, it just has some problems to work on". www.148apps.com. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  66. ↑ "Bending Spoons Launches Playond: the Mobile Gaming Service for Everybody | Business Wire". www.sttinfo.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  67. ↑ Mundy, Jon (13 February 2020). "Hands on with Playond – Apple Arcade with a free tier". TapSmart. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  68. ↑ Bald, Cameron (6 March 2020). "Playond subscription service disappears from the App Store, its entire library of games is suddenly free to play". www.pocketgamer.com. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
[edit]
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