Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO • Hacker News Board

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#11

Post by foresterre » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:53 PM UTC

Their strategy always was "buy company" and "instantly lay off about everyone" to save costs and rapidly increase subscription pricing (1).

So far they've been relatively soft (for their doing) on Komoot, which I too am most anxious off.

Bikepacking.com has a good read about Komoot; it was probably unsustainable in the long run before bending spoons took over anyways (2), yet I much rather had they stayed a sort of indie company driven by their passion. I will cancel my long standing Komoot subscription the day enshittification news breaks.

(1) https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2025/03/komoot-acquired-history-... (2) https://bikepacking.com/plog/when-we-get-komooted/

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#12

Post by joxdosba » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

raphman wrote: post #9

xnx wrote: post #5

But how will they make it about AI...?

Hmm, assuming that the AI bubble might pop a little bit after the upcoming IPOs, maybe it's better not to call yourself an AI company then?

That seems like a very odd assumption to make.

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#13

Post by adw » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

moralestapia wrote: post #10

It's still a big mystery to me how they were able to pull billion-dollar acquisitions while being one or two orders of magnitude lower in revenue. >inb4 leverage Yeah, I know leverage exists but still, you cannot go to a bank and ask them to help you acquire something 100x worth your cap.

Leverage. They’re essentially an 80s style junk bond LBO house.

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#14

Post by k310 » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

IMO, they buy companies, lay off en masse and sell the now sunsetted products.

Reminiscent of "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, but he gutted and then flipped whole companies.

I think of them as the bakery outlet store that sells only stale goods.

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#15

Post by postalcoder » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 4:01 PM UTC

elffjs wrote: post #3

Per Wikipedia, Bending Spoons owns: AOL, Brightcove, Eventbrite, Evernote, Harvest, Issuu, Komoot, Meetup, MileIQ, Remini, StreamYard, Tractive, Vimeo, and WeTransfer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Spoons

You missed filmic. Wow. So these people are the reason why Filmic went overnight from one of my favorite iOS apps to something for the trash heap.

my knee jerk reaction is to throw shade at the ppl operating the company but, upon second thought, there's an obvious pattern of them relieving the company from people who knew less how to run (and sustain) it. I haven't used evernote in almost a decade but it actually seems.. fine? I stopped using it when the company started selling merch as a latch ditch effort to make money.

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#16

Post by martin_drapeau » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 4:03 PM UTC

20VC had an interview with them: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/luca-ferrari

I came in thinking they would be like PE and just put products on life support sucking all the recurring they can. But it seems they care and improve the products. I think that has merrit.

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#17

Post by muglug » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

michelb wrote: post #8

righthand wrote: post #4

Interesting, Vimeo sat under IAC for almost 20 years claiming it would go public, when it finally did it was eventually sold off to Bending Spoons not even 5 years in.

While I'm not a huge fan of the Bending Spoons model, Vimeo sure got improved quickly.

What exactly? From what I’ve heard, most of what was released in the months after the acquisition were features that were already in development/behind feature flags.

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#18

Post by mmarian » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 4:08 PM UTC

I'm often thinking about building a better Meetup, it's so expensive for organizers these days. But then I acknowledge the network effects and I give up. And they own Eventbrite too! Savvy people.

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#19

Post by ChrisArchitect » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

Some history from only the past year in discussions:

Bending Spoons acquires Vimeo for $1.38B

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45197302

AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45749161

Bending Spoons Acquires Eventbrite

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46124673

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

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46707699

Re: Italy's Bending Spoons, owner of AOL and Vimeo, files for Nasdaq IPO

#20

Post by baron816 » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 4:13 PM UTC

mmarian wrote: post #18

I'm often thinking about building a better Meetup, it's so expensive for organizers these days. But then I acknowledge the network effects and I give up. And they own Eventbrite too! Savvy people.

Isn’t this just Luma?