Bending Spoons acquires Vimeo for $1.38B(investors.vimeo.com)
66 pointsby nixy3 days ago7 comments
  • e98cuenc2 days ago
    Everybody loves to hate BendingSpoon, but there is a lesson here. They consistently rewrite the code of their acquisitions with a tiny team, fire everybody and are able to maintain and improve the product. They basically skip everything but engineers, and they are kept at a minimum. Feedback from users is the products they take over 1) become more expensive, 2) they ship features waaaay faster.

    It looks like next generation private equity, and my guess is more houses will start copying them.

    • gbalduzzi2 days ago
      Also, their core development team is in Italy and they are considered by many the best company in the IT space in Italy.

      What it means is that they have the top Italian talent, they pay them a very good italian salary that is still way lower than an american one.

      So basically they have very capable people working on their engineering, at a fraction of the cost of the original staff.

      • albybisy2 days ago
        > Also, their core development team is in Italy and they are considered by many the best company in the IT space in Italy.

        That’s just PR to get students to apply and pay them peanuts. History shows that they acquire businesses, make them worst and destroy them.

    • FinnLobsien2 days ago
      I think that’s always the thing with any of these things. The companies private equity or Bending Spoons acquire are frequently inefficient, bloated and not the best-run businesses.

      But its basically an admission that the business is in its extraction phase and will no longer innovate.

      Relevant quote:

      Private Equity is engaged in buying artisanal semi-businesses, turning them into businesses, propping up the numbers while destroying them —then, hopefully, destroying itself.

    • izacus2 days ago
      Can you provide proof that products ship features faster after they lay off their teams?
    • N19PEDL22 days ago
      > It looks like next generation private equity, and my guess is more houses will start copying them.

      Isn't this the same that Broadcom does on a larger scale?

    • magarnicle2 days ago
      As a Vimeo OTT customer, this is producing mixed emotions.
    • johnnyanmaca day ago
      >They consistently rewrite the code of their acquisitions with a tiny team, fire everybody and are able to maintain and improve the product.

      "improve" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Evernote and meetup are in worse states post BS. Shipping features and shipping value is very different in this landscape.

      >It looks like next generation private equity, and my guess is more houses will start copying them.

      Yes, that's why I hate it.

    • stevenhubertron2 days ago
      Citation needed for “improve the product”
  • nhubbard3 days ago
    Oh no, this is undoubtedly going to be terrible for the companies that built their OTT platforms on Vimeo. E.g. Dropout.tv.
    • j452 days ago
      Could you help me understand what Vimeo helps with that's specifically helpful with OTT?
  • FinnLobsien3 days ago
    Bending Spoons has recently been buying aging SaaS companies that have established PMF and customers and decent brands (Evernote, Komoot, WeTransfer, Meetup).

    I guess it's mostly a private equity play—usually after being acquired by BS, prices go up, paywalls go everywhere, companies get "more efficient" (aka layoffs) and the product stops evolving.

    I wish there was a better outcome for beloved brands with good products that won't experience any more hypergrowth.

  • tracerbulletx2 days ago
    "In September 2022, Bending Spoons acquired FiLMiC[13] and converted its video-recording app FiLMiC Pro to a subscription revenue model.[14] In December 2023, the original FiLMiC team were laid off, and development of FiLMiC Pro was continued in-house by Bending Spoons.[15]

    In November 2022, Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Evernote.[16] The acquisition was concluded in January 2023.[17] In July 2023, Evernote laid off all of its existing staff."

    Oh great.

  • BoredPositron3 days ago
    That's a way higher evaluation than I thought after their pivot. I remember in 2012 when I had hope they would succeed as a YouTube competitor. Their staff videos were insanely funny. Sad to see I end like this.
    • johnnyanmaca day ago
      Funny that I see this while searching for this story here: https://ymcinema.com/2022/03/17/vimeo-we-are-a-b2b-solution-...

      It makes sense. Without ad revenue or premium subscriptions, there's no viable way to pay for creators in the say way a proper "indie youtube". In addition, many creators who post on Vimeo very much did not want their content to be publicly viewable. That was a feature.

  • alwahi3 days ago
    oh the monsters that killed evernote
  • ThrowawayTestr3 days ago
    Oh sweet, does this mean my worthless VEMO is worth something now?