Tech IPO Accelerates Growth
Italian Tech Conglomerate Bending Spoons Files U.S. IPO to Fund Future Acquisitions
Key Points
Bending Spoons said it plans to list its shares on U.S. exchanges under the ticker symbol “BSP,” with reporting indicating a Nasdaq listing (and other coverage noting NYSE).
In its prospectus, the company said that since last year it has invested $3.3 billion in acquiring AOL, Eventbrite and Vimeo, “primarily funded through loans.”
For AOL specifically, the prospectus included acquisition economics: Bending Spoons projected AOL would generate $633 million in revenue and $333.6 million in operating profit in 2025, and it paid $1.454 billion for AOL.
Bending Spoons reported an operating-profit turnaround in Q1 2026—$120 million—compared with an operating loss of $4.6 million in the year-ago quarter (a sharper operational shift than just net income figures).
Italian tech conglomerate Bending Spoons filed for a U.S. IPO on June 8, 2026, seeking a valuation near $20 billion, according to TechStartups. The Milan-based firm, which owns AOL, Vimeo, Evernote, Eventbrite, and WeTransfer, reported Q1 2026 revenue of $601 million — up 132% year-over-year — and swung to a $27.5 million net profit from a $112 million loss a year earlier.
The company plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker "BSP," according to Tech.eu. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Allen & Company are leading a 14-bank underwriting syndicate. Proceeds will go toward paying down debt and funding more acquisitions.
A $3.3 Billion Buying Spree Funded Mostly by Loans
Bending Spoons spent $3.3 billion on acquisitions in 2025 alone, "primarily funded through loans," the company said in its SEC prospectus. It paid $1.454 billion for AOL, $1.38 billion for Vimeo, and roughly $500 million for Eventbrite. A $2.8 billion debt package backed the AOL deal. The IPO is partly a bid to fix that heavily leveraged balance sheet.
The AOL deal looks compelling on paper. Bending Spoons projected AOL would generate $633 million in revenue and $333.6 million in operating profit in 2025 — meaning the $1.454 billion purchase price could be recovered in well under five years. The company told investors it has a pipeline of more than 1,000 potential acquisition targets.
Cut Costs, Raise Prices: The Bending Spoons Playbook
Bending Spoons follows a simple formula. It buys struggling digital brands, fires most of the staff, and shifts the product to a paid subscription model. The company said 84% of its revenue now comes from subscriptions. It has more than 500 million monthly active users but only 9 million paying customers — a gap that signals room to push more users toward paid tiers.
The efficiency gains are striking. Revenue per full-time employee rose from $1.12 million in 2023 to $2.57 million in 2025, according to the SEC filing. The company said AI now authors 90% of its code pull requests. CEO Luca Ferrari describes the firm as a hybrid of "Berkshire Hathaway and Google." Critics call it "private equity in disguise."
From a $112 Million Loss to a $120 Million Operating Profit
The numbers tell a turnaround story. In Q1 2025, Bending Spoons posted an operating loss of $4.6 million and a net loss of $112 million. One year later, operating profit hit $120 million and net income reached $27.5 million. Full-year 2025 revenue came in at $1.31 billion, a 95% jump from the prior year, according to GuruFocus.
Investors are pricing in further acceleration. The $20 billion valuation target — nearly double the $11 billion from a prior funding round — reflects expectations that adjusted EBITDA could double from roughly $700 million in 2025 to $1.4 billion in 2026. Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, Cox Enterprises, and Durable Capital Partners are among the major institutional backers already on the cap table.
Italy's Biggest Tech Bet Looks to Wall Street, Not Milan
Founded in Milan in 2013 by Luca Ferrari and three co-founders, Bending Spoons is Italy's most prominent tech unicorn. But it is skipping European exchanges entirely. Ferrari has said "limited access to capital and an excess of regulation" made staying in European markets untenable, according to Tech.eu. Italian media have cheered the company's rise while mourning the slight to the Milan Stock Exchange.
Ryan Reynolds is among the company's high-profile backers, having invested through his firm Maximum Effort since 2022. The offering price, share count, and timing have not yet been set. What is clear is that Bending Spoons is betting that Wall Street will reward a profitable, acquisition-driven model — even one built on gutting the brands that defined the early internet.
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