DISCLAIMER: GoldInvestors.news is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by GoldInvestors.news are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur.

At the time of its Nasdaq debut in July, Bending Spoons was still a little known Italian holding company whose portfolio included aging internet brands such as AOL, Vimeo, Eventbrite and Evernote. Less than four months later, it has become a conspicuous buyer of software businesses displaced by the artificial intelligence boom.

Berkshire Hathaway has supplied the clearest endorsement yet of that strategy. The investor has now put more than $900 million into Bending Spoons, including a $330 million stake disclosed Wednesday, while Bending Spoons calls Berkshire a “longstanding inspiration” for its own model.

Investors reacted forcefully, driving Bending Spoons shares up 41% after the disclosure. Some gains faded later in the week, but the company still carried a market capitalization of about $30 billion, and its stock closed Friday at $47.07.

Analysts at Mizuho called the added investment another sign of confidence. “Berkshire’s decision to add to its position just a few months after the IPO and at these levels provides another vote of confidence in the Bending Spoons model from one of the world’s most respected long-term investors,” they wrote.

The endorsement arrived alongside a harsher reminder of how Bending Spoons operates. After agreeing in August to buy workflow software provider Airtable for about $1.3 billion, almost 90% below its late 2021 peak valuation, the company said Monday that a “large portion of the pre-acquisition team” would leave with “substantial separation packages.”

Layoffs had already occurred at Evernote, Vimeo, WeTransfer and other portfolio companies. The cuts show the other side of a strategy centered on buying out of favor technology properties, changing operations and seeking durable profits rather than preparing businesses for eventual resale.

The opportunity has widened as artificial intelligence reshapes software. New agents powered by large language models are displacing developers and their products, while Anthropic and OpenAI move toward trillion dollar valuations and many software as a service companies face what has been called the “SaaSpocalypse.”

Public markets reflect that reversal. Intuit, HubSpot and Adobe shares are each down at least 30% this year, while numerous private SaaS companies that once attracted venture capital are struggling to raise money amid weak appetite for initial public offerings.

Bending Spoons has moved directly into that vacuum. Last month it agreed to acquire collaboration software vendor Miro, once valued at $17.5 billion, for $1.36 billion, following major deals for Evernote in 2022, Brightcove in 2024, and Vimeo, AOL and Eventbrite in 2025.

The company began in 2013 under friends Luca Ferrari, Matteo Danieli and Francesco Patarnello, with Ferrari serving as CEO. After their mobile app Evertale failed, they used their remaining $40,000 to build an operating company instead of pursuing “products nobody wanted,” according to the IPO prospectus.

Bending Spoons held its IPO on June 30, raising about $1.7 billion at $29 a share, then reached Nasdaq the following day. Its approach differs from Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners, which sought undervalued SaaS businesses that could be improved and later sold or taken public at higher prices.

Bending Spoons instead intends to hold acquired businesses and generate profits from them, resembling the Warren Buffett model while focusing on technology. It also takes direct control of software, operations and personnel decisions, a depth of involvement Mizuho analyst Lloyd Walmsley said differs from traditional private equity.

Customers can feel the consequences through higher prices. After buying Evernote, Bending Spoons raised its annual personal subscription to $130 from $70 in April 2023, then later offered a $100 starter plan and $250 Evernote Advanced plan, compared with the prior $170 pro plan.

Ferrari told CNBC that portfolio profits finance future growth, with the “overwhelming majority” directed toward more deals. He said opportunities for improvement can be unlocked in the first few years, after which each business will have the organic growth inherent to its market.

The investment case remains unproven because customers must keep finding the products valuable enough to accept higher prices as AI pressures software margins. In its first public company earnings report in August, revenue more than doubled from a year earlier to over $700 million, while net income rose 171% to $177 million.

That growth was driven almost entirely by acquisitions and preceded the Airtable closing and Miro announcement. Ferrari said roughly half of company revenue already comes from professional businesses, and he attributed the recent software focus to value emerging after a heavy selloff, saying prior enterprise SaaS valuations made little sense.

DISCLAIMER: GoldInvestors.news is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by GoldInvestors.news are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur.