AOL. Evernote. Vimeo. Eventbrite. All darlings of a previous era of technology, and now all owned by the same company: A little-known Italian startup called Bending Spoons. Since its founding in 2013, the company has acquired more than 50 stalled out apps and websites and rolled them up into a single business that raked in $1.3 billion in 2025. It’s “the best of both worlds of Berkshire Hathaway and a technology company,” CEO Luca Ferrari tells Forbes.

Today, the Milan-based company went public on the Nasdaq, raising $1.7 billion at a $18.4 billion valuation, in the largest listing for an European startup since 2023. Ferrari and his cofounders were already billionaires after Bending Spoons was valued at $14 billion in an October 2025 fundraise. Now their combined stake of $8.9 billion is worth more than big name Italian corporates like tire maker Pirelli and Banca Generali.

The float also means a big potential payday for Bending Spoons’ backers, including British investor Baillie Gifford, whose stake is now worth $1.2 billion; buyout fund Renaissance Partners, which owns a $980 million stake; and American billionaire Jim Cox’s media group, who holds $780 million position.

Bending Spoons shares popped 31% from the open to $38 per share.

That valuation teeters on Ferrari’s aggressive playbook. Bending Spoons buys apps that bring in solid revenue, but aren’t growing like they used to. Then Ferrari’s team reboots the underlying technology — centralizing server costs, cleaning up sprawling codebases — while slashing costs. That often means layoffs: According to its SEC filings, the firm paid over $78.6 million in “reorganization-related expenses” in 2025 after picking up 1,830 staff from its AOL, Eventbrite........

© Forbes