Bending Spoons Buys Database Unicorn Airtable After Steep Valuation Markdown

talian technology group Bending Spoons S.p.A. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire US software company Airtable. The transaction will be an all-cash deal valuing Airtable at $1.285 billion, both companies announced on Tuesday. Including Airtable’s net cash position, the deal implies an equity value of approximately $2.25 billion, according to Bending Spoons. Bending Spoons will acquire 100 percent of Airtable’s outstanding shares.

The transaction is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Until then, both companies will continue to operate independently.

First acquisition since the IPO

Airtable was founded in 2013 and offers a platform that combines spreadsheet and database functionality, allowing companies to build their own applications and workflows without programming knowledge. The San Francisco-based company has raised a total of around $1.4 billion in capital; its valuation at the Series F round in 2021 stood at a hefty $11.7 billion. The sale therefore represents a substantial markdown for Airtable.

Bending Spoons shares closed Monday at $36.22, up 2.9 percent and well above the $29 IPO price. In after-hours trading, the stock gained a further 2.54 percent to $37.14.

Airtable is Bending Spoons’ first acquisition since its Nasdaq debut last month. It follows this year’s completed purchases of internet brand AOL and ticketing platform Eventbrite, continuing a years-long, aggressive expansion strategy.

The familiar pattern: acquire, then cut jobs on a massive scale

Bending Spoons, founded in Milan in 2013, has established itself in recent years as one of Europe’s most prominent tech consolidators. The company combines a technology-operations model with a private-equity-style acquisition approach: it buys established digital products and brands and then subjects them to deep restructuring.

Its broad portfolio includes WeTransfer, Evernote, Vimeo, Meetup, Brightcove, StreamYard, MileIQ, and Remini — as well as, particularly relevant for the DACH region, hiking and outdoor app Komoot from Potsdam and Austrian pet-tech company Tractive from Upper Austria.

In both cases, the acquisition was followed by drastic job cuts:

• Komoot: The acquisition of the Berlin/Potsdam-based company was announced in March 2025. Just weeks later, reports indicated that around 85 percent of the original workforce was laid off, with some employees reportedly let go within days of the deal closing.
• Tractive: After the acquisition of the Pasching-based GPS tracker maker closed in May 2026, Bending Spoons planned to cut around 160 of roughly 300 jobs — more than half the workforce. Co-founder Michael Hurnaus, who had previously publicly stressed that he deliberately chose a “forever owner” over a classic private-equity investor, announced his own departure as CEO alongside the acquisition, as did CFO Wolfgang Reisinger.

Similar cuts followed earlier deals as well: after acquiring WeTransfer, Bending Spoons eliminated around three-quarters of the workforce; at Evernote, the entire US team was let go; and at Eventbrite, the team was more than halved.

Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari had told Reuters he expects adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 billion for 2026. Whether and to what extent jobs will also be cut at Airtable after the deal closes remains unknown — neither company commented on Airtable’s roughly 1,400 employees in Tuesday’s announcement.