alt Hacker NewsBending Spoons makes first post-IPO acquisition with $1.3B Airtable deal
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$725M@11B Series F 2021 Dec
[email protected] Series E 2021 Mar
[email protected] Series D 2020 Sep
[email protected] Series C 2018 Nov
$52M@152M Series B 2018 Mar
>Bending Spoons said Airtable's current net cash position implies an equity value of about $2.25 billion.
Bending Spoons must have amazing negotiaters to strike such a bargain.
We should send them to Iran to negotiate the peace deal.
Bending Spoons IPO raised $1.68bn so taking away IPO fees and they have in effect spent all of it on 1 acquisition
After they acquired Meetup.com, subscription prices skyrocketed while nothing useful was added to the product.
29€ a month just to host a meetup page with RSVPs.
Bending Spoons strategy can be summarized in the following plan:
- Make offers so low that - if anyone were to accept the deal, they're desperate/greedy enough to take it - hike price and limit features - people who do not have the capacity to switch will bear the cost - bleed out remaining customers
If it works, it works. They're basically betting against the amount of business depth that exists in the world
Expect entshittification of Airtable after the acquisition.
People are reacting like Bending Spoons is going to make Airtable worse, whereas in fact being acquired by bending spoons is already the indicated of things being worse than ever. Which may be a little premature for Airtable but definitely not unexpected. As to what will bending spoons do with it - does anyone know (or care) what did they do with Evernote, or AOL?
Airtable felt stuck for a long before that, now is just the moment to remind ourselves not to be stuck with it.
Stripe about to acquire OpenRouter for $10B, and Airtable is only ~1/10th of OpenRouter???
Airtable is worth "just" $1.3B? I see (or used to see) it almost everywhere; why such a low valuation?
I was sad when Airtable bought Airplane.dev because that was a dirty move they pulled. Now let’s see if that’s how they get treated.
Well, you all know what this means... RIP Airtable
Super silly of me to ask but how does Bending Spoons make money in all of this? Is it the "fire all American devs and save costs with cheaper Italians" schtick or is there something else?
I don't see how Airtable makes money on its own.
Bending Spoons list of taking over companies is huge:
2026: Airtable
2025: Eventbrite, AOL, Vimeo, Brightcove, Komoot
2024: WeTransfer, Issuu, Hopin, Meetup, Mosaic Group
2023: Evernote
2022: Filmic Pro
2021: Remini
2018: Splice
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I had some thoughts but for context.
Basically, widely reported Airtable's 2026 reported ARR was close to $500M. they sold at a ~3x multiple assuming it went flat/down~~. They had raised $1.4B (total latest around 770M) in funding I am not sure for what?? and had ~1B in cash (according to some online sources)??
Now I have no idea what this is even about, maybe all investors wanted out?