Oct 30, 2025 - Business

Bending Spoons, fresh off its AOL deal, gets valued at $11.7 billion

Sara Fischer

Illustration of golden spoons bent at different angles to form a dollar bill sign. — Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Bending Spoons, an Italian holding company that buys and seeks to revitalize tech brands like AOL, on Thursday announced a $710 million equity raise at an $11 billion pre-money valuation.

Why it matters: The deal includes $270 million in primary capital that will be used to make further acquisitions, Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari tells Axios.

Zoom in: Bending Spoons sought to expand its cap table to include firms that could help quickly secure debt when time-sensitive deal opportunities arise.

T. Rowe Price led the equity round, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, Fidelity, Foxhaven Asset Management, and Radcliff.

Zoom out: Bending Spoons typically acquires American and European tech companies with large user bases. Past examples include Brightcove, Evernote, Meetup, and Vimeo.

On Wednesday, it agreed to buy AOL for around $1.5 billion — part of which will be financed via $2.8 billion in new debt.

Disclosure: Axios was acquired by Cox Enterprises in 2022.

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Bending Spoons, fresh off its AOL deal, gets valued at $11.7 billion

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