Bending Spoons

Europe's leading consumer-app acquirer and, via AOL, an operator of legacy digital advertising infrastructure with global reach

Bending Spoons is a Milan-based technology company founded in 2013 that has built one of Europe's most aggressive consumer-app acquisition strategies. The company identifies underperforming or undervalued software products, acquires them, and applies a disciplined operational model — typically reducing headcount sharply while investing in product and monetisation — to improve margins and scale. Its portfolio has grown to include Evernote (note-taking), Meetup (community events), Filmic Pro (mobile filmmaking), Splice (video editing), and StreamYard (live streaming), among others. Bending Spoons' most consequential move into advertising and media came with its agreement to acquire AOL from Yahoo in October 2025, a deal that closed in January 2026 for approximately $1.5 billion. AOL encompasses a substantial digital advertising business — including programmatic ad-tech infrastructure, publisher monetisation tools, and owned media properties — making Bending Spoons a meaningful player in the digital advertising ecosystem. The acquisition positions the company to operate one of the legacy internet's most recognised ad-tech stacks alongside its consumer app portfolio. The company is privately held and largely self-funded through profits, having raised a €340 million growth round in 2022 at a reported valuation of around €2.1 billion. It operates with a lean, remote-friendly structure and is known for a high-performance culture. With AOL now under its umbrella, Bending Spoons sits at the intersection of consumer software and digital advertising infrastructure, serving both end users and the marketers and publishers who rely on AOL's ad-tech platform.