Bending Spoons, the Italian app-maker known for acquiring struggling software companies and wringing profits out of them, has agreed to acquire Airtable in a cash deal worth about $1.29 billion.
The deal, announced Tuesday, values the San Francisco relational-database company at roughly a tenth of its peak valuation: Airtable was worth $11.7 billion in a 2021 funding round, when low interest rates inflated software valuations across the industry. The Wall Street Journal called the acquisition "a kick in the gut" for software unicorns and their backers.
Bending Spoons, which went public on Euronext Milan last year, is making its largest acquisition yet — and its first since the listing. The company built its reputation buying faded names such as Evernote, WeTransfer, and Meetup and applying aggressive product and cost discipline. Airtable, whose tools the company says are used by roughly 80% of the Fortune 100 for no-code databases, will join that portfolio.
For venture investors, the price is another data point in the post-2021 reckoning: a beloved no-code pioneer selling for single-digit billions to a buyer known for turning products around — or stripping them down, depending on who you ask.
