According to TechCrunch, the Milan-based tech conglomerate Bending Spoons acquired event ticketing platform Eventbrite this week for $500 million. This adds to a portfolio that already includes Evernote, Meetup, WeTransfer, and Streamyard, serving over 300 million monthly active users. The 12-year-old company, now valued at $11 billion, follows a playbook of buying stagnant but popular digital brands to transform them. Its recent $270 million funding round and a $440 million secondary share sale propelled its valuation and reportedly turned its four co-founders into billionaires. The firm also has pending deals to acquire Vimeo for $1.38 billion and AOL from Yahoo, backed by $2.8 billion in debt financing.
The Spoons Playbook
Here’s the thing about Bending Spoons: they’re not your typical private equity firm. They don’t just buy to strip and flip. They buy to hold and overhaul. Their targets are these iconic, often beloved, internet brands that have hit a wall—think Evernote or Eventbrite. The founders or previous owners have run out of steam, the product is stagnant, but the user base is still massive. That’s the sweet spot.
Then comes the controversial part. Bending Spoons is anything but a passive owner. They dive deep, restructuring the underlying tech, changing monetization (often making free tiers more limited), and yes, frequently conducting significant layoffs, as seen with Filmic and Evernote. It’s a brutal focus on efficiency and revenue that makes users nervous but, so far, seems to build a “live portfolio” of products that keep running. They claim they’ve never sold an acquired business. So, are they saviors of dying digital relics, or are they presiding over a slow-motion tech graveyard? The answer is probably a bit of both.
From Failure to an $11 Billion Secret
It’s almost poetic that this giant started from a failure. The company emerged from the ashes of Evertale, a photo-sharing app startup that fizzled out after Disrupt SF 2011. The founders stuck together, tinkered with in-house apps, and made their first acquisition. That pivot from builder to buyer was everything.
And now look at them. Valued at $11 billion, with celebrity investors like Andre Agassi and The Weeknd on the cap table. They received over 600,000 job applications in 2025 alone, despite calling themselves a “demanding environment.” That’s the power of a portfolio that touches a billion people, even if the parent company’s name draws a blank. They’ve mastered the art of being invisible while controlling some of the most visible tools on the web.
What’s Next? Bigger Targets and Bigger Waves
So where does this go after Eventbrite? The trajectory is clear: bigger, more prominent names. The pending acquisitions of AOL and Vimeo are a huge step up in terms of mainstream recognition. We’re talking about brands your parents know. With $2.8 billion in debt financing and fresh equity, the war chest is enormous.
I think we’ll see them go after more mid-tier SaaS and content platforms—companies with strong user bases but shaky business models. Rumors have already swirled around companies like Typeform. The strategy of leveraging AI and proprietary tech across the portfolio, mentioned in their funding announcement, suggests they want to create synergies, not just a random collection of apps. But can a single playbook work for everything from a note-taking app to a video platform to an event ticketing system? That’s the billion-dollar question. Or, more accurately, the eleven-billion-dollar one.
The Inevitable Backlash
Now, the bigger they get, the more scrutiny they’ll face. The layoffs and product changes that flew under the radar with smaller acquisitions will cause major waves with a brand like Vimeo or AOL. There’s already a pattern of community discontent following their takeovers. As they swallow more foundational web services, that discontent could solidify into a real reputation problem.
Basically, Bending Spoons has built an empire in the shadows. But with this funding, these deals, and this valuation, the shadows are disappearing. Everyone is watching now. Their next moves—how they integrate komoot, what they do with Eventbrite’s fees, how they handle Vimeo’s creator community—will define whether they’re seen as shrewd stewards or just the latest tech barbarians at the gate. One thing’s for sure: they’re not done shopping.
