Berkshire invested more than $900 million in Bending Spoons — CNBC
Berkshire Hathaway increased its investment in Italian technology company Bending Spoons to more than $900 million. Information about a $330 million stake was disclosed on Wednesday. Following this, Bending Spoons shares rose by 41%, although they later gave back part of the gains; the company’s market capitalization stood at about $30 billion, CNBC reports.
Acquisition strategy
Milan-based Bending Spoons acquires digital services and software companies. Its portfolio includes Evernote, Brightcove, Vimeo, AOL and Eventbrite. The company held its initial public offering on June 30, raising about $1.7 billion at a price of $29 per share. The following day, its shares began trading on Nasdaq, and closed at $47.07 on Friday.
Bending Spoons’ strategy is not to resell acquired assets, but to generate profit from their continued operation and use those funds for development. Chief Executive Officer Luca Ferrari told CNBC that the overwhelming majority of the company’s growth is driven by new acquisition deals.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Deals with Airtable and Miro
In August, Bending Spoons announced its intention to acquire workflow software developer Airtable for about $1.3 billion. This is nearly 90% below Airtable’s peak valuation at the end of 2021. On Monday, Bending Spoons said that a significant part of Airtable’s team that worked at the company before the acquisition would leave with substantial severance payments.
Job cuts had previously also taken place at Evernote, Vimeo and WeTransfer, which are part of Bending Spoons’ portfolio. Last month, the company agreed to buy collaboration software provider Miro for $1.36 billion; Miro had previously been valued at $17.5 billion.
In its first report after going public, released in August, Bending Spoons said its revenue more than doubled year-on-year to more than $700 million. Net profit increased by 171% to $177 million. According to the company, acquisitions accounted for nearly all revenue growth.
