Bending Spoons Buys Another One: Italian conglomerate books Eventbrite for $500M
For years, there’s been one place where big-name tech products could enjoy a second life, albeit without most or all of the people that got them there: Bending Spoons.
The Italian company, which is valued at $11B and reports 300M+ monthly active users, acquired Eventbrite for $500M this week.
If you’re unfamiliar, Bending Spoons has an M&A playbook:
Identify a product with a fair amount of users but an ebbing valuation.
Buy it for the IP and product, not the team.
Initiate big layoffs.
Tweak the product’s UX / increase prices (often by changing paid tier structures).
Hold on as revenue increases (which differentiates it from private equity buyers).
So what companies has it purchased? Quite a few, including:
AI photo-enhancing app Remini
Smartphone video app FiLMiC
Evernote, a note-taking and organization app
Meeting and group organization platform Meetup
Mosaic Group (makers of iTranslate, RoboKiller, PDF Hero, and other apps)
Livestream recording tool StreamYard
Issuu, a digital publishing platform
WeTransfer, a file-sharing service
Video streaming platform Brightcove
Komoot, an app for planning outdoor adventures
Time-tracking tool Harvest
Mileage tracking app MileIQ
It has also announced acquisitions of:
Video hosting site Vimeo
AOL—yes, that AOL
What other well-known products are out there waiting for the Bending Spoons treatment? Or: Which product above would you like back to its pre-Bending Spoons version?
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