As AI Buying Frenzy Heats Up, Bending Spoons Looks Backward

Anyone of a certain age will remember Uri Geller, the magician who became a big star in the 1970s for bending spoons with his mind, a trick that was later discredited. Given that sorry history, you might wonder why an internet conglomerate based in Italy chose Bending Spoons as its name. Is the management trying to prove it can perform acts of corporate magic? Perhaps (its logo is “Impossible.Maybe”). That could explain why Bending Spoons is snapping up numerous faded U.S. internet companies. 

On Thursday, Reuters reported that Bending Spoons was in talks to buy AOL from Apollo-owned Yahoo for $1.4 billion. That follows its $1.38 billion purchase of video tech firm Vimeo three weeks ago and its February acquisition of another video tech firm, Brightcove, as well as its 2023 purchase of hot-no-more productivity software firm Evernote. (A spokesperson quoted CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari saying the firm buys tech businesses “with untapped potential” which it invests in to “unlock that potential.”) But while Bending Spoons is looking backward for acquisition targets, the rest of tech is embracing dealmaking of a different sort.