Bending Spoons Surges 40% in Nasdaq Debut at $25.7B
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- Bending Spoons closed at $40.50 in its Nasdaq debut, ~40% above its $29 IPO price, reaching a $25.7B market cap — more than double its last $11B private valuation.
- The 13-year-old Milan-based company raised $1.68 billion in its offering and has built its model on acquiring and revitalizing aging brands like AOL, Evernote, Meetup, Vimeo, and Eventbrite.
- Unlike private equity, Bending Spoons has no plans to sell the brands it acquires — it restores profitability through aggressive cost-cutting and price increases.
- Bending Spoons reported $601M in Q1 revenue with $27.4M net income, a sharp turnaround from a $112M net loss on $259M revenue in the prior-year period; subscriptions generated 84% of revenue last year.
- Pre-IPO backers included Baillie Gifford (largest outside shareholder), plus Renaissance Partners, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price.
- Co-founders Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Tomasz Greber received a significant windfall from the listing.
Why it matters: Five Bending Spoons co-founders landed a major windfall as the IPO more than doubled the company's last private $11B valuation to $25.7B. The debut also delivered paper gains to outside backers Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, and Fidelity — a notable contrast to a SaaS sector spooked by AI displacement fears.
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