AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for roughly $1.5B
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Apollo Global Management has reached a deal to sell AOL to Italian tech holding group Bending Spoons in a deal valued at roughly $1.5 billion, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: AOL still drives hundreds of millions of dollars of free cash flow.
Zoom in: Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari said AOL has around 30 million monthly active users across its email and web content properties.
- That "incredibly loyal user base," as he called it, could be better served with greater investments in AOL's product and user experience, he noted.
- The deal is expected to close at the end of this year or early next.
Zoom out: Bending Spoons is a privately held Italian holding company that acquires assets with large user bases and invests in their turnaround with technology improvements.
- The company tends to sit on their investments long term after acquiring them. For AOL, a deal means they will finally have a long-term home, after exchanging hands multiple times over the past few years.
- Bending Spoons typically acquires large American and European tech companies. In September, the company entered an agreement to acquire the publicly traded American video software company Vimeo in a $1.38 billion deal.
Catch up quick: Apollo was not actively looking to sell AOL, but the brand's strong performance prompted inbound interest, pushing the firm to more formally evaluate potential buyers, Axios reported.
- In 2021, the private investment firmed acquired AOL and Yahoo, which were combined under their previous owners at Verizon.
- Apollo has since invested in its products, which has helped contribute to engagement growth across its web and email portfolio.
What's next: Bending Spoons has also raised $2.8 billion in debt financing that will be used to fund the AOL deal as well as future research and development investments and merger and acquisition opportunities.
- Financing was provided by banks including Banco BPM, BNP Paribas, CACIB Crédit Agricole, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, J.P. Morgan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho, Société Générale, UniCredit, and Wells Fargo.
- In total, Bending Spoons says it has secured around $4 billion in debt funding this year alone.
