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Bending Spoons Goes Public As It Turns Aging Internet Brands Into A Growth Machine

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

July 2, 2026

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.

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Europe’s Deadly Summer Heat Exposed The Cost Of A Warming Continent

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 23, 2026

Europe experienced its deadliest summer for heat-related deaths on record in 2026, with an estimated 24,400 excess deaths linked to extreme temperatures across 30 countries. Researchers estimate that human-induced climate change was responsible for around 32,000 of the deaths attributed to heat in the study’s broader analysis, accounting for 65% of the total.

The findings highlight the growing public-health consequences of global warming, largely driven by fossil fuel use, as extreme heat becomes more frequent and severe.

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A Summer Of Dangerous Heat

Between June and August, heatwaves pushed temperatures in Western Europe to an average of 2.9°C above the 1991–2020 norm, with some days reaching 12°C above average. Nearly a third of estimated heat-related deaths occurred during a particularly intense heatwave between 17 June and 1 July.

“These numbers are a stark reminder that our hotter, more extreme summers are having an increasingly severe impact on public health,” said Dr Clair Barnes, a researcher at Imperial College London and co-author of the study.

The estimated toll exceeded previous peaks of around 29,000 deaths in summer 2022 and 28,000 in 2003 across the region studied.

How Researchers Estimated The Toll

Researchers modelled the relationship between temperature and mortality across 854 urban areas in the EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland, covering around 40% of the population in the 30 countries studied.

The analysis incorporated temperature records, age, socioeconomic conditions, environmental factors and access to healthcare. By comparing actual temperatures with those expected without human-induced warming, the team estimated the additional deaths attributable to climate change.

Final official mortality figures for summer 2026 are not yet available in many countries, and heat-related deaths are often underreported because their effects can be difficult to identify directly.

Older People Face The Greatest Risk

People aged 85 and over accounted for roughly half of the estimated deaths. However, the impact extended across age groups, with around 800 excess deaths among adults aged 20–44 and approximately 6,000 among people under 65.

Southern Europe experienced the highest mortality burden, reflecting hotter temperatures and other vulnerabilities, including air pollution, limited green space and unequal access to healthcare and heat-alert systems.

Italy, France And Spain Record Highest Toll

Italy recorded an estimated 13,303 heat-related excess deaths, followed by France with 7,268 and Spain with 6,824. Germany recorded around 6,340, while the UK saw an estimated 4,354 deaths.

In the UK, the heat also placed significant pressure on healthcare services. Andrew Hartle, Professor of Practice of Anaesthesia at Imperial College Healthcare, said demand during the summer resembled that of a severe winter virus season.

Cities Urged To Strengthen Heat Protection

Researchers say cities can reduce the risks through climate shelters, external shading and building retrofits, alongside measures to help residents avoid exposure during the hottest hours. Checking on vulnerable people, staying hydrated and following heat alerts are also important.

The researchers stress that adaptation must go hand in hand with reducing fossil fuel use to limit further warming. The findings underline that extreme heat is already a major public-health threat across Europe, with thousands of lives at risk each summer.