Italian Bending Spoons continues its transformation into a global software consolidator with a series of acquisitions totaling more than 2.6 billion euros. The Milanese company is preparing to take over AOL, Elysium and Typeform, and has made an offer to buy Vimeo, in a strategy aimed at building a coherent portfolio of mature applications with strong recovery potential.
A portfolio of brands in reconversion
Since the acquisition of Evernote, Meetup, Brightcove, WeTransfer and Filmic Pro, Bending Spoons has made software turnaround a business model. Its approach is based on second-hand build-up, a strategy consisting of acquiring undervalued digital assets, restructuring them then integrating them into a unified product and marketing architecture. This mechanism allowed it to reach 623 million euros in turnover in 2024, an increase of 73% over one year.
The next ongoing operations illustrate the diversity of targets:
- AOL, a subsidiary of Yahoo, for 1.4 billion dollars (1.19 billion euros), represents a bet to revalue a historic Internet player, with significant advertising inventories.
- Elysium and Typeform, according to information from the daily Il Messaggero, are the subject of respective offers of 240 million dollars (204 million euros) and 255 million dollars (217 million euros).
- Vimeo, for which an offer of around 1.1 billion dollars (935 million euros) has been under study since the beginning of September, would expand the group’s presence in video creation and distribution.
A complex and controlled financial architecture
To support this acquisition campaign, the group is relying on global financing of 2.5 billion dollars (2.13 billion euros), structured with a large pool of banks including Intesa Sanpaolo, BNP BNL, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Mizuho, Rabobank and Banco BPM.
A capital increase of 250 million dollars (215 million euros) is also planned to strengthen its equity, while several European and American credit lines (TLA, TLB, RCF) complete the system.
Towards a consolidated European software model
Founded in 2013 in Copenhagen by Francesco Paternello, Luca Ferrari, Luca Querella and Matteo Danieli, Bending Spoons has built a profitability model on the recovery of losing software assets. The company, based in Milan, retains 55% of its capital in the hands of the founders and 28% with institutional investors, including StarTip (TIP – Tamburi Investment Partners) at 3.5%.
