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IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

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Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#21

Post by mathverse »

vineyardmike wrote: post #9
kbar13 wrote: post #4

i'm not sure i quite understand the situation. is the implication that bending spoons is some kind of private equity firm but for apps that will suck the soul out of these 17 apps? i haven't heard of this company before but browsing their site at least the marketing speak points towards it not being the case... could someone explain?

They’re not private equity… they’re like a bottom tier tech conglomerate that’s been growing rapidly lately. They most famously bought Evernote. They buy apps/products that mature and don’t need a lot of work, fire all the workers and hire a skeleton crew to manage them in a cheaper labor market. They also harvest data from the apps and resell it.

Dont their hire mostly in Italy?

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#22

Post by ayewo »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #16
vineyardmike wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not private equity… they’re like a bottom tier tech conglomerate that’s been growing rapidly lately. They most famously bought Evernote. They buy apps/products that mature and don’t need a lot of work, fire all the workers and hire a skeleton crew to manage them in a cheaper labor market. They also harvest data from the apps and resell it.

I've always wanted to build a digital burial business like this, actually. It feels like a great way to tax late adopters' unwillingness to take on the risk of switching to a newer, better platform. As a late adopter myself of a great many things I feel like I understand the crotchety reluctance well enough to make a good go at it - maybe I'll unlearn my own risk aversion along the way.

> I've always wanted to build a digital burial business like this, actually.

I had a chuckle at that unlikely turn of phrase.

Digital burial business is so apt that I’m stealing it, thanks

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#23

Post by sambalbadjak »

magicalhippo wrote: post #11
Sayrus wrote: post #5

They recently acquired Meetup as well [1]. This doesn't bode well for its future. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38953242

Speaking of, is there a good replacement for Meetup if you just want to organize some informal activities, like a user group or going biking?

In the Netherlands we use Erbij, (https://erbij.app), which is now going international. full disclosure, I'm one of the founders

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#24

Post by epolanski »

mathverse wrote: post #21
vineyardmike wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not private equity… they’re like a bottom tier tech conglomerate that’s been growing rapidly lately. They most famously bought Evernote. They buy apps/products that mature and don’t need a lot of work, fire all the workers and hire a skeleton crew to manage them in a cheaper labor market. They also harvest data from the apps and resell it.

Dont their hire mostly in Italy?

Yes and they have notoriously quite high standards.

Even though I think that the people that apply there have quite low moral/ethical ones.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#25

Post by fallingknife »

kasperni wrote: post #15

If you read their Wikipedia page [1] they sound like an Italian Saint. A lot about the various awards they have gotten and other "charitable" activities. But reading the comments here, I get another impression of the company. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Spoons

One the one hand, never take rankings and awards like that seriously. On the other hand, people in these comments are irrationally angry about the fact that people are getting fired in this deal without knowing any of the business reasons behind it.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#26

Post by raverbashing »

jtthe13 wrote: post #17
vineyardmike wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not private equity… they’re like a bottom tier tech conglomerate that’s been growing rapidly lately. They most famously bought Evernote. They buy apps/products that mature and don’t need a lot of work, fire all the workers and hire a skeleton crew to manage them in a cheaper labor market. They also harvest data from the apps and resell it.

Yes. That and they optimize the pricing to squeeze as much profit from captive users (or those that don't know better). They increased the pricing for Evernote quite aggressively, and reduced the free features if I recall correctly. Selling to Bending Spoons is pretty much giving up and letting the vultures have a bite at the remains.

Well to be fair Evernote is a very thin product

I guess most organizational addicts have moved to Notion at this time

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#27

Post by epolanski »

kasperni wrote: post #15

If you read their Wikipedia page [1] they sound like an Italian Saint. A lot about the various awards they have gotten and other "charitable" activities. But reading the comments here, I get another impression of the company. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Spoons

That's like 100% written by themselves or a PR agency.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#28

Post by John23832 »

sambalbadjak wrote: post #23
magicalhippo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of, is there a good replacement for Meetup if you just want to organize some informal activities, like a user group or going biking?

In the Netherlands we use Erbij, ( https://erbij.app ), which is now going international. full disclosure, I'm one of the founders

So YOU use it.

Not saying it’s not a good app, but your selling your book.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#30

Post by John23832 »

Sayrus wrote: post #5

They recently acquired Meetup as well [1]. This doesn't bode well for its future. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38953242

Meetup needs an alternative anyway. They shove ads in your face, and the app is buggy.
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