Berkshire Hathaway Puts Another $330 Million Into Tractive Buyer Bending Spoons
Set Trending Topics as a preferred source on Google.
Berkshire Hathaway usually buys insurers, railroads and Coca-Cola. Now the investment legend is doubling down on a software acquirer from Milan. As Bending Spoons just announced, the conglomerate is investing another $330 million (about €294 million) in the company, which recently acquired the Austrian pet-tracker maker Tractive, among others. Berkshire had already invested $600 million at the I.P.O. in July. Once the transaction closes, the holding company will own about 4 percent of Bending Spoons.
How the Deal Works
Bending Spoons is issuing 10 million new shares at $33 each to Berkshire in a private placement. Closing is subject to customary conditions. The fresh capital is intended to increase the company’s financial flexibility and, above all, to fund further acquisitions. “Bending Spoons continuously evaluates M&A opportunities, and our pipeline remains strong,” said Francesco Patarnello, a co-founder who leads acquisitions at Bending Spoons. Luca Ferrari, the chief executive, called Berkshire a long-standing inspiration for the company.
Investors loved the news: The Nasdaq-listed stock jumped about 40 percent in early trading, according to Reuters. With the share price briefly above $51, Bending Spoons is now worth about $31 billion (roughly €27.6 billion) on the stock market, well above the $18.4 billion valuation at its July I.P.O. Berkshire secured its new shares at a bargain: The $33 price is even below the previous day’s closing price of nearly $38.
A Company That Collects Software Brands
Bending Spoons has an unusual business model. It buys established, often stagnating internet brands, overhauls them technologically and organizationally, and reinvests the profits in the next acquisition. By its own account, it has not sold a material business in more than a decade. Mr. Ferrari describes the model as a mix of a private equity firm and Google.
Its portfolio now includes AOL, Vimeo, Evernote, Eventbrite, WeTransfer, Brightcove, Airtable and Tractive, for which Bending Spoons paid about $900 million. Recently, the company announced the acquisition of the whiteboard provider Miro for $1.355 billion, a fraction of its former $17.5 billion valuation. At its I.P.O. in July, Bending Spoons raised about $1.68 billion.
Why Berkshire Is Buying In
For Berkshire Hathaway, which has been led by Greg Abel as Warren Buffett’s successor since the start of the year, tech investments were long the exception. The best known is its multibillion-dollar bet on Apple, which remains the conglomerate’s largest stock holding. Recently, however, Berkshire has also been buying heavily into Google: While Mr. Buffett was still in charge, the company took a stake in Google’s parent, Alphabet, in the third quarter of 2025. In the second quarter of 2026, Berkshire increased that position by 83 percent to about 106 million shares, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Worth about $37.8 billion, Alphabet is now Berkshire’s third-largest U.S. stock holding, after Apple and American Express. Bending Spoons also fits the profile: It buys companies with loyal users and stable revenue at low prices and makes them more profitable. That echoes Berkshire’s classic strategy of buying solid businesses cheaply and holding them for the long term.
The Downside: Deep Cuts
The model has its critics. After acquisitions, Bending Spoons regularly makes sweeping job cuts, as it did at Evernote and WeTransfer. At Tractive, too, the new owner reportedly plans to cut half of the workforce. Customers also regularly complain about price increases and reduced free plans after acquisitions, as at Evernote.
