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

reuters.com

41–50 of 118 posts

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

#41
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luma doesn't do discoverability well unfortunately. Also very tech centric.

I think it depends where you are. SF is all tech stuff but https://luma.com/chicago for example is mostly non-tech.

Oh, didn't know that. My perspective is from the UK.

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

#42
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.

Partiful feels like it has replaced Facebook Events, Meetup, and the other formerly-popular hubs for in-person event planning.

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

#43
post #6

> "Founded in 2013, Bending Spoons reported a net income of $27.5 million on revenue of $601 million for the three months ended March 31, compared to a net loss of $112.2 million on revenue of $259 million a year earlier. A large chunk of its revenue comes from recurring subscriptions, providing a more predictable stream of income." Gergely Orosz did an interview with them in 2024: https://newsletter.pragmaticenginee…

Clever, shitty numbers and they decide to IPO at the peak of the "actually SaaS is worthless" hype. I wish them the worst, considering their business model.

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

#44
post #6

> "Founded in 2013, Bending Spoons reported a net income of $27.5 million on revenue of $601 million for the three months ended March 31, compared to a net loss of $112.2 million on revenue of $259 million a year earlier. A large chunk of its revenue comes from recurring subscriptions, providing a more predictable stream of income." Gergely Orosz did an interview with them in 2024: https://newsletter.pragmaticenginee…

So roughly $100m/year profit(edit). They are looking for a 20Bn valuation but interest rates are at 5%? How does any of this make any sense? That or we are in a real bubble.

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

#45
I'm old enough to have been acquired by Computer Associates at a company that acquired my company. CA's business model was to buy companies and then fold their products into an omnibus license, all of their customers, including the ones they just acquired, becoming involuntary licensees whatever the cat dragged in this quarter.

It turns out a lot of corporate IT has no idea how to switch vendors in case a product they use gets acquired by a company with this business model.

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

#46
post #28

IPOing just before an evident .com tech bubble is about to explode is courageous. Good luck to everyone. That said, their business model seems fairly solid, and despite the naysayers, they improve things a bit on most of their acquisitions. So there might be some real value in what they do. Yet, the expected market valuation is way off. But worry not: market will fix that.

> despite the naysayers, they improve things a bit on most of their acquisitions

There seem to be quite a few commenters stating the exact opposite, with concrete examples in hand (especially for Komoot). Do you have experience with any of the services they've bought, and can say how they've been improved?

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

#47
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.

Partiful feels like it has replaced Facebook Events, Meetup, and the other formerly-popular hubs for in-person event planning.

Hmm, didn't know of Partiful. Quick look at landing page, seems more geared to parties and more social media-y? Meetup's event listing was good as it was; well, before they started charging for you to even see who's attending.

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

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So first they fire all the staff and then they "care and improve the products"? Who? Who does that? They fired the staff, so who improves the product?

They fire everybody and then they bring in way cheaper European developers.

Especially Swiss developers, best bang-for-buck on the continent ;)

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

#49
post #44
post #6

> "Founded in 2013, Bending Spoons reported a net income of $27.5 million on revenue of $601 million for the three months ended March 31, compared to a net loss of $112.2 million on revenue of $259 million a year earlier. A large chunk of its revenue comes from recurring subscriptions, providing a more predictable stream of income." Gergely Orosz did an interview with them in 2024: https://newsletter.pragmaticenginee…

So roughly $100m/year profit(edit). They are looking for a 20Bn valuation but interest rates are at 5%? How does any of this make any sense? That or we are in a real bubble.

You're mixing up the numbers. Their annual run rate is $2.4 billion. Revenue grew 140% YoY. That's an 8x sales multiple on good growth. The valuation is not egregious.

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

#50
post #38
post #14

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.

This guy dubbed it “get Komooted”, as they pulled the same trick for used-to-be-great cycling app Komoot: https://bikepacking.com/plog/when-we-get-komooted/ The app quality almost immediately went down the drain after the acquisition by Bending Spoons.

With LLMs, I feel like they'll have the last laugh.
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