At the time of its Nasdaq debut in July, Bending Spoons was a little-known holding company out of Italy that owned older internet names like AOL, Vimeo, Eventbrite and Evernote.
Less than four months later, the Milan-based firm has emerged as a surprising home for former high-flying software startups that have been thrust aside by the artificial intelligence boom. Its M&A plan got a major boost this week from the most famous holding company on the planet: Berkshire Hathaway.
Berkshire, which Bending Spoons describes as a "longstanding inspiration" for its strategy, has now invested over $900 million in the company, including a $330 million stake disclosed on Wednesday. Wall Street loved the deal, sending Bending Spoons' stock up 41%, though some of those gains were lost later in the week, leaving the company with a market cap of about $30 billion.
"Berkshire's decision to add to its position just a few months after the IPO and at these levels provides another vote of confidence in the Bending Spoons model from one of the world's most respected long-term investors," wrote analysts at Mizuho, in a report after the announcement.
The other big news out of Bending Spoons this week underscores the flipside of the business: job cuts. In August, Bending Spoons announced it was buying workflow software provider Airtable for about $1.3 billion, or almost 90% below the company's peak valuation from late 2021. Bending Spoons said Monday that a "large portion of the pre-acquisition team" from Airtable would be leaving with "substantial separation packages." Layoffs were previously implemented at Evernote, Vimeo, WeTransfer and others in the portfolio.