AOL Logs Back On to Public Markets Under Quirky New Name

If any sequence of sounds captures the 1990s, it’s a cacophony of screeches and beeps that’ll make any dog tilt its head, followed by AOL’s iconic, “You’ve got mail.” 

Just like bucket hats and baby tees, ’90s staple AOL is making a bit of a comeback. The once-dominant dial-up internet provider is headed back to the Nasdaq today under its parent company Bending Spoons, a Milan-based firm that bought AOL in January. 

Bending Spoons hopes to raise more than $1.6 billion in its US IPO for a top-end valuation of nearly $19 billion. The debut will test investors’ appetite for software at a time when AI is the shiny, new toy. 

Building the Buddy List

Bending Spoons has acquired more than 50 companies since its 2013 founding, scooping up familiar brands including video platform Vimeo, file-sharing service WeTransfer and ticket seller Eventbrite. Bending Spoons is behaving like “Property Brothers” for old-school internet properties, buying and revitalizing companies it thinks have untapped potential. 

The company has a rinse-and-repeat approach:

• Buying Spoons is known for squeezing revenue from its acquired companies by cutting employee headcount, sending in its own engineers to overhaul platforms and raising prices. Earlier this year, Vimeo reportedly laid off most of its staff, including its entire video team, in the second round of layoffs since Bending Spoons took over. Previously, Bending Spoons gutted three-quarters of WeTransfer’s employees.
• The ruthless strategy has yielded small profits: After a loss of $137,000 last year on $2.6 billion in revenue, Bending Spoons netted $28 million in first-quarter earnings from sales of $601 million. It’s also bringing $4.4 billion in debt it’s used to finance deals into its IPO. 

Big Spoon: Bending Spoons wants to keep buying companies, with CEO Luca Ferrari saying in 2024 that the firm had more than 5,000 companies in its consideration pipeline. Former employees and customers of the beloved and nostalgic companies Bending Spoons has bought have vented frustrations about the firm’s sweeping changes. The Italian company may find out how far it can bend spoons before they break.