Tell HN: Bending Spoons laid off almost everybody at Vimeo yesterday

Post by mlnj » Wed, Jan 21, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

nness wrote: post #4

ayhanfuat wrote: post #3

From "Vimeo to be acquired by Bending Spoons in $1.38B all-cash deal" ( https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/10/vimeo-to-be-acquired-by-be... ): > Bending Spoons has a pattern of acquiring companies, then laying off staff and cutting features. For example, Bending Spoons acquired note-taking and task management app Evernote in 2022, after which the company laid off most of its U.S. and Chile staff and moved operations to E…

I don't understand this model. Such significant layoffs would indicate that there is no real appetite for expansion or growth. Their goal might be be to acquire, dramatically cut costs, and then run the product for as long as they can at a profit before breaking it down and selling it off (or hope for a buyout by a bigger player.) But that wouldn't make sense — customers of a depreciating SaaS product surely churn af…

Post by didacusc » Wed, Jan 21, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

ortusdux wrote: post #8

CoastalCoder wrote: post #5

I just recently found that Vimeo is hosting MST3K, with free playback of the original episodes (Joel and Mike). So for selfish reasons this makes me sad. I'm guessing MST3K will need to find another host, perhaps with less generous terms. Edit: I really hope that doesn't mean RiffTrax will also have problems.

They are also the backend for Dropout, which has just shy of 1m paid subscribers. So I understand your selfish sadness feelings. https://vimeo.com/customers/dropout

Post by munk-a » Wed, Jan 21, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

charliebwrites wrote: post #12

ayhanfuat wrote: post #3

From "Vimeo to be acquired by Bending Spoons in $1.38B all-cash deal" ( https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/10/vimeo-to-be-acquired-by-be... ): > Bending Spoons has a pattern of acquiring companies, then laying off staff and cutting features. For example, Bending Spoons acquired note-taking and task management app Evernote in 2022, after which the company laid off most of its U.S. and Chile staff and moved operations to E…

I’d love to see how this impacts their bottom line Sure short term it’s more “focused” and “greedy” But the damage to the community and acquisition through a free tier must drop those numbers in an impactful way

Post by tetris11 » Wed, Jan 21, 2026, 4:56 PM UTC

didacusc wrote: post #6

nness wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this model. Such significant layoffs would indicate that there is no real appetite for expansion or growth. Their goal might be be to acquire, dramatically cut costs, and then run the product for as long as they can at a profit before breaking it down and selling it off (or hope for a buyout by a bigger player.) But that wouldn't make sense — customers of a depreciating SaaS product surely churn af…

They did the same thing with Komoot and other apps. I don't understand where the money comes from and how they are planning to keep this portfolio growing.

Post by thatguy0900 » Wed, Jan 21, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

gtowey wrote: post #10

nness wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this model. Such significant layoffs would indicate that there is no real appetite for expansion or growth. Their goal might be be to acquire, dramatically cut costs, and then run the product for as long as they can at a profit before breaking it down and selling it off (or hope for a buyout by a bigger player.) But that wouldn't make sense — customers of a depreciating SaaS product surely churn af…

> Their goal might be be to acquire, dramatically cut costs, and then run the product for as long as they can at a profit before breaking it down and selling it off In the 80's people who did this were known as "corperate raiders". Nowadays it's just called business.