AOL is back on the public market — in a way. Its owner, Bending Spoons, the Italian software company known for acquiring and rebuilding struggling internet brands, debuted on Nasdaq on Thursday at a valuation above $18 billion before its shares surged 40% by the close.

A Long-Term Approach To Acquisitions

Founded 13 years ago in Milan, Bending Spoons has built a business around acquiring well-known digital brands, including Meetup, Eventbrite, Vimeo, WeTransfer and AOL. Unlike many private equity firms, however, the company says its goal is not to buy, cut costs and sell.

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“We want to place ourselves as an operator that takes beloved brands and makes them much better,” co-founder and Chief Product Officer Matteo Danieli told TechCrunch.

AI Is Accelerating Growth

The company’s acquisition strategy has attracted criticism, particularly over workforce reductions following takeovers. Even so, Bending Spoons says revenue has continued to grow, with artificial intelligence playing an increasingly important role.

“In the past year and a half, we’ve witnessed an incredible acceleration in the pace at which we were able to ship new features and create value for users,” Danieli said.

That focus is reflected throughout the company’s IPO filing, which describes AI as a capability it had been developing long before the technology became mainstream.

Turning Failure Into A Strategy

Before founding Bending Spoons, Danieli and his co-founders built Evertale, a startup that used machine learning to automatically create a digital diary of users’ lives. Although the business failed, it shaped the philosophy behind Bending Spoons.

“It sparked a reflection around the fact that you don’t always find perfect correlation between how talented entrepreneurs are and the success they have,” Danieli said. “Luck is a very big component of that equation.”

Rather than relying on finding the next breakthrough product, the founders focused on building a business centred on operational excellence. As the company states in its SEC filing, “luck plays a big role in finding product-market fit,” but “luck is irrelevant when pursuing operational excellence.”

Data, Pricing And Product Improvement

That philosophy drives how Bending Spoons manages the businesses it acquires. The company relies heavily on analytics, experimentation and pricing tests to improve products and monetisation. While some pricing changes have drawn criticism from long-time users, Danieli said customer retention has remained “remarkably stable.”

Evernote has become the company’s most closely watched turnaround. Danieli described it as Bending Spoons’ most satisfying acquisition, pointing to the AI-focused v11 update and saying the company ultimately won back many users, including Evernote co-founder Phil Libin.

A Different Kind Of Public Company

The company’s model was initially met with scepticism from investors, who struggled to classify a business combining software operations with an acquisition-driven growth strategy. Over time, however, confidence grew. Before its IPO, Bending Spoons had already reached an $11 billion private valuation and attracted backing from prominent investors across technology and entertainment.

Its emphasis on talent has also become a competitive advantage. According to the company’s SEC filing, revenue per full-time employee increased from $1.12 million in 2023 to $2.57 million in 2025, before reaching $0.97 million in the first quarter of 2026, partly reflecting productivity gains from AI.

To mark its stock market debut, Bending Spoons brought its entire workforce to New York for the listing ceremony. Danieli said the IPO provides another source of capital to support the company’s acquisition strategy, but added that the focus remains unchanged.

“From a buyer’s perspective and as a company that grows through acquisitions, that’s actually a great opportunity and moment to deploy capital,” he said.