What's this about?
Bending Spoons — the Milan-based company that buys and runs mature apps (Evernote, Vimeo, WeTransfer, Meetup) — agreed to acquire Airtable, the no-code database platform, for $1.285B in its first deal since going public.
What exactly is Bending Spoons' model?
It's a "permanent acquirer": buy established software with loyal users but slowing growth, cut costs hard, raise prices, and run it for cash rather than for a resale. Evernote is the cautionary reference point — many users felt the post-acquisition regime prioritized monetization over the product.
What's the community saying?
HN 100 pts, 93 comments; 5.7k likes on the announcement.
- Valuation whiplash: Airtable raised at ~$11B in 2021; $1.285B is the visible cost of the zero-interest-era software correction.
- Existing-user dread, from the Evernote pattern — expect price hikes and lean maintenance.
- swyx's insider note: don't count Airtable's team out — their next chapter is Hyperagent, shown at his conference.
- Reporting confusion worth flagging: some headlines say $1.28B, TechCrunch briefly ran "$2.2B" — the confirmed figure is $1.285B.