Bending Spoons, a Milan-based holding company that owns older internet brands including AOL, Vimeo, Eventbrite and Evernote, listed on Nasdaq in July. Less than four months later, it has emerged as an unlikely home for former high-flying software startups sidelined by the artificial intelligence boom.
Berkshire Hathaway, which Bending Spoons describes as a "longstanding inspiration" for its strategy, has now invested more than $900 million in the company. The additional $330 million stake was disclosed on Wednesday.
"Berkshire's decision to add to its position just a few months after the IPO and at these levels provides another vote of confidence in the Bending Spoons model from one of the world's most respected long-term investors," Mizuho analysts wrote in a report following the announcement.
The week also brought news of the flipside of Bending Spoons' approach: job cuts. In August, the company announced it was buying workflow software provider Airtable for about $1.3 billion, or almost 90 percent below the company's peak valuation in late 2021. On Monday, Bending Spoons said a "large portion of the pre-acquisition team" from Airtable would be leaving with "substantial separation packages." Layoffs have previously been implemented at Evernote, Vimeo, WeTransfer and other portfolio companies.
Bending Spoons' strategy reflects a broader shift in the technology industry, as AI agents powered by large language models displace software developers and the products they built. With firms like Anthropic and OpenAI marching toward trillion-dollar valuations, businesses are directing more spending toward AI at the expense of software-as-a-service names, a phenomenon that has become known as the "SaaSpocalypse."