Bending Spoons, the Milan-based acquirer of stagnant software brands including Evernote and Vimeo, closed its IPO debut at $40.50 — nearly 40% above its $29 offering price — valuing the company at $25.7 billion.
Bending Spoons, a Milan-based company that acquires and revitalizes stagnant software brands, closed its first trading day at $40.50 per share on Wednesday — nearly 40% above its $29 IPO price — giving the 13-year-old firm a market capitalization of $25.7 billion.
The debut more than doubled Bending Spoons' last private valuation of $11 billion, and the company raised $1.68 billion in the offering.
The stock's performance came amid a broader slump in traditional software-as-a-service companies, which have faced investor concerns that AI-native tools could erode demand for legacy business software.
Bending Spoons has built its portfolio by purchasing once-popular but underperforming technology brands — including AOL, Eventbrite, Evernote, Meetup, and Vimeo — and restoring their profitability through cost reductions, new feature development, and price increases.
The approach resembles private equity in structure, with one notable distinction: the company has stated it does not intend to sell the businesses it acquires.
Financials disclosed ahead of the IPO show the strategy has translated to meaningful results. Bending Spoons reported $601 million in revenue for the first quarter of this year, generating $27.4 million in net income — a sharp turnaround from the same period a year earlier, when the company posted a $112 million net loss on $259 million in revenue, according to SEC filings.
Subscriptions accounted for 84% of the company's revenue last year, underscoring its reliance on recurring income from its growing portfolio of consumer and business software products.
Before the offering, Edinburgh-based asset manager Baillie Gifford was Bending Spoons' largest outside shareholder. Smaller stakes were held by Renaissance Partners, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price.
The IPO also delivered a significant financial windfall for the company's five co-founders: Luca Ferrari, Francesco Patarnello, Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Tomasz Greber. The company's name is drawn from a scene in the science-fiction film The Matrix.
Bending Spoons is not alone in pursuing the strategy of acquiring, stabilizing, and holding stalled software firms — a category sometimes referred to as "venture zombie" investing. Other firms operating in the same space include Constellation Software, Curious, Tiny, SaaS.group, Arising Ventures, and Calm Capital.
The strong opening-day performance signals that at least a segment of public market investors remains receptive to profitable, acquisition-driven software business models, even as enthusiasm for high-growth, pre-profit SaaS names has cooled. Whether the stock can sustain its debut-day premium will depend in part on whether the company's turnaround playbook continues to hold at scale.
Jay Goldberg is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering technology, markets, and policy. He files the breaking news and deal coverage that move the publication's core desks.
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