What is Bending Spoons? The little-known firm behind Vimeo’s sweeping layoffs

What is Bending Spoons? The little-known firm behind Vimeo’s sweeping layoffs

Vimeo was hit by an enormous round of layoffs this past week, according to a report by Business Insider. Staffers posting on varied social media websites that the layoffs impacted most of the company, including the whole video team. Vimeo is a video-hosting platform, so that sounds unhealthy.

The layoffs are the latest restructuring by Bending Spoons, the Milan-based tech conglomerate that acquired Vimeo for $1.38 billion in an all-cash deal that closed in the latter half of 2025. While Bending Spoons could also be unknown to many, it’s quietly change into one in all the tech business’s most prolific consumers, now proudly owning Meetup, WeTransfer, Eventbrite, and many others.

So what precisely is Bending Spoons? Despite its catchy identify, the 12-year-old company has stayed remarkably under the radar, usually making headlines only when it provides another recognizable model to its portfolio — or when it restructures these firms by means of important layoffs.

The company’s playbook has change into clear: purchase underperforming however standard tech manufacturers, then rework them to serve hundreds of thousands of customers more effectively by means of controversial modifications to beloved merchandise and substantial workforce reductions. It adopted this sample with Evernote and WeTransfer, and is now repeating it with Vimeo.

Despite remaining largely unknown to the public, Bending Spoons’ roster of merchandise has served more than a billion people, with over 300 million month-to-month energetic customers and 10 million paying clients. Here’s what you could know about the company reshaping some of the web’s most recognizable manufacturers.

What is Bending Spoons?

Despite often being described as a non-public fairness firm, Bending Spoons describes itself more particularly as a company that acquires and transforms digital companies. Having grown to a headcount of 400 to 500 workers (whom the company calls “Spooners”), its main focus is on bettering services that others have created.

However, it didn’t start that approach — Bending Spoons’ founders had taken a stab at constructing their very own apps and merchandise before ultimately shifting their focus.

The little-known backstory is that Bending Spoons was born out of the stays of Evertale, a Copenhagen-based startup that participated in Disrupt SF 2011’s Startup Alley and raised seed funding for its photo-sharing app, Wink. 

The Gossip Blogger event

San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026

Evertale failed not lengthy after, and buyers have been in a position to exit, however its founders and a few workers saved working together, initially on in-house apps. Soon sufficient, the team made its first acquisition, adopted by many others, CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari told the enterprise podcast 20VC in a uncommon interview. 

In 2020, Bending Spoons made an exception when it created and donated Immuni, Italy’s official COVID-19 contact-tracing app. But other than that, it has principally been honing a method: Bending Spoons identifies a well-liked product it thinks it could actually enhance inside and out, and buys it from house owners who’ve reached their limits.

After the acquisition, Bending Spoons is something however a passive proprietor, making modifications to the merchandise’ person experience and options, in addition to to the underlying tech; monetization strategy, including pricing; and team group, including headcount.

While this give attention to effectivity and income overlaps with personal fairness methods, Bending Spoons claims a key distinction: It “aims to hold forever, and has never sold an acquired business.” It is constructing a live portfolio, not gathering web relics or presiding over a tech graveyard.

To be clear, Bending Spoons’ acquisition targets thus far haven’t essentially been failing companies — many still had substantial person bases and income. But they’ve tended to be stagnant, uncared for, or had house owners seeking to exit. Let’s recap these key offers, and what occurred of their aftermath.

What firms has Bending Spoons acquired?

While Bending Spoons acquired a number of firms between 2014 and 2021, including the AI-powered photograph enhancer Remini, its most notable acquisitions occurred more not too long ago.

In 2022, it acquired Filmic, recognized for its standard video- and photo-editing apps, and laid off the whole workers in December 2023.

In a deal also announced in 2022 and finalized in early 2023, Bending Spoons also acquired Evernote, the note-taking app that had reportedly reached a $1 billion valuation before hitting hassle. Layoffs adopted the acquisition, in addition to cuts to Evernote’s free providing.

The first half of following yr, 2024, was notably energetic, with the acquisition of Meetup, app maker Mosaic Group, and Hopin’s StreamYard all taking place within six months. 

In July 2024, it went on to accumulate the publishing platform Issuu and the file switch service WeTransfer, the place it later lower workers and made modifications to its free plan, introducing stricter limits. In December 2025, WeTransfer’s cofounder Nalden criticized Bending Spoons’ selections and said he was constructing another file switch service.

In November 2024, Bending Spoons announced it could spend $233 million on an all-cash take-private deal to accumulate video platform Brightcove. 

The acquisitions have continued apace in 2025, with acquisitions that embody the route planner Komoot and administration software maker Harvest. 

Bending Spoons also announced its intention to purchase Vimeo in a $1.38 billion all-cash deal, and soon after, to purchase AOL from Yahoo for an undisclosed quantity. (Disclosure: Both AOL and Yahoo are former house owners of TechCrunch, through which Yahoo retains a small curiosity.) 

At the time, Bending Spoons said the acquisitions of AOL and Vimeo have been anticipated to shut by the end of 2025, topic to plain closing circumstances and regulatory approvals; including, in the case of Vimeo, approval by its stockholders, which they’ve not too long ago granted. 

The Vimeo acquisition closed in the latter half of 2025, and was adopted by the large layoffs that hit the company this month, impacting most of the workforce including the whole video team.

In December 2025, Bending Spoons announced it could purchase yet another well-known model: Eventbrite. Once again, it could pay a lot less than Eventbrite was as soon as price — only some $500 million, a far cry from the company’s $1.76 billion valuation when it went public in 2018.

However, there may be more hurdles. Earlier this month, Eventbrite stockholders filed a lawsuit in Delaware to upend the take-private deal over voting rights, and Eventbrite is at present preventing an effort to fast-track this challenge.

How a lot is Bending Spoons price?

Since October 2025, Bending Spoons has been one in all Europe’s uncommon tech decacorns (firms valued at more than $10 billion).

This comes on the heels of Bending Spoons’ latest funding round: $270 million from buyers, including T. Rowe Price and earlier backers Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, and Fidelity, plus a $440 million secondary share sale by present shareholders.

The company last raised at a $2.8 billion valuation in 2024, making its up to date $11 billion valuation a big step up — also for its 4 co-founders, who joined the billionaire ranks as a result.

Ferrari’s stake in Bending Spoons is now reportedly price $1.4 billion, while co-founders Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Francesco Patarnello each maintain stakes price $1.3 billion, according to Forbes estimates based on shareholder data revealed by the Italian Business Register.

It’s unclear whether or not any of the co-founders bought inventory in the secondary transaction. Bending Spoons has declined to touch upon its co-founders’ stakes.

Though lengthy bootstrapped, Bending Spoons had beforehand raised fairness financing a number of occasions, including in September 2022 and early 2024. It also has VIPs on its cap desk, including tennis and leisure stars Andre Agassi and Bradley Cooper; tech business bigs Eric Schmidt, Mike Krieger, and Xavier Niel; and performers The Weeknd, The Chainsmokers, and Maluma.

Upon saying its new funding in October 2025, Bending Spoons said it could assist future acquisitions and funding in its proprietary technology and AI capabilities. This comes along with the $2.8 billion in debt financing the company disclosed when it announced its intention to accumulate AOL, debt that will fund the AOL deal and future acquisitions.

What’s next?

Bending Spoons said it intends to continue pursuing new acquisitions that develop its portfolio of client and enterprise digital merchandise, and it now has funding to afford more distinguished targets going ahead — as confirmed by its determination to accumulate Eventbrite.

AOL and Vimeo already carry far more identify recognition than earlier targets, though the AOL phrases stay undisclosed. The properties also have some attain. In saying the AOL deal, Bending Spoons claimed that AOL stays one in all the top 10 most-used e-mail suppliers in the world, with 8 million daily energetic customers and 30 million month-to-month energetic customers. (Not lengthy before buying AOL, Bending Spoons was also rumored to be eyeing app maker Elysium and Typeform, the Barcelona-based SaaS company recognized for its kind creation instruments.)

Presumably to assist its continued efforts to accumulate firms, it also has openings across varied roles, with new hires initially working from its Milan headquarters before gaining the choice to work from places of work in London, Madrid, and Warsaw, or remotely.

In fact, despite warning candidates that Bending Spoons is a “demanding environment,” the company has said it already acquired more than 600,000 job functions in 2025, a determine that will seemingly climb as its current offers generate extra consideration.

Candidates apart, Bending Spoons is also interviewing banks. According to reviews, the company is holding talks with a number of monetary entities to launch an IPO on the NYSE. In November, Ferrari had told Reuters that ought to it resolve to go public, Bending Spoons would most likely listing in the U.S., the place tech firms have a tendency to realize increased valuations.

This story was initially revealed in October 2025 and is up to date periodically with new data.

Stay informed with the latest headlines that matter. At TheGossipBlogger.com, we ship well timed and credible coverage on breaking news, global occasions, politics, society, and every thing in between.

Whether it’s unfolding developments, coverage modifications, or highly effective human-interest tales, our newsroom curates impactful content to maintain you up to date in real time.

From local points to worldwide affairs, we break down advanced tales with readability, context, and a give attention to what’s related to you.

Bookmark News and test in often — because staying informed is the first step towards staying ahead.