In 2001, America Online merged with Time Warner in a deal valued at $165 billion. Fast forward to this year, the assets of AOL were acquired by an Italian company named Bending Spoons for $1.5 billion.
The noteworthy aspect is not just that AOL continues to generate $633 million annually, but that it is poised to go public along with a collection of other vintage internet brands.
Bending Spoons has been on an acquisition spree, targeting established tech companies that many might recognize, such as Evernote, Vimeo, WeTransfer, Brightcove, and Eventbrite. This week, it aims to raise up to $1.62 billion through an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange. This offering could potentially value Bending Spoons at $19 billion.
The company’s strategy deviates from the current focus on highly valued companies centered around artificial intelligence. The A.I. boom has heightened expectations in an industry eager for innovation, resulting in high-profile IPOs. For instance, Elon Musk’s SpaceX set a record with its $1.77 trillion listing, and the market is anticipating the IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI.
In this environment, companies not on a rapid growth trajectory often become sidelined. However, Bending Spoons illustrates that older internet brands still hold merit. Their approach usually includes streamlining operations by cutting employees linked to the internet services, raising prices, and leveraging its talented team of young engineers based in Milan to enhance these products and stimulate growth.
“Our idea is to be a hybrid between a private equity firm and Google,” stated Luca Ferrari, Bending Spoons’ CEO, in a 2024 interview. “It’s like they had a baby.”
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