Vimeo, a once-thriving videostreaming platform that has struggled financially post-pandemic, will be acquired by the Milan-based technology company Bending Spoons for $1.38 billion. The deal is expected to close later this year, at which point Vimeo will become a privately owned company.
Bending Spoons will be adding the platform to a portfolio that has grown significantly via acquisitions, a number of them at the intersection between streaming and event technology.
Last year, Hopin sold its name and remaining assets — Streamyard, Streamable and Superwave — to Bending Spoons for an undisclosed sum. Bending Spoons has since acquired the video-hosting site Brightcove and the file-hosting site WeTransfer; the company previously acquired Evernote, Meetup, the AI-powered photo enhancer Remini and the robust video-editing app Splice.
"We’re looking forward to welcoming Vimeo into the Bending Spoons portfolio," said Luca Ferrari, CEO and cofounder of the growing company. "Vimeo is a pioneering brand in the video space, serving a passionate, global community of creators and businesses."
"At Bending Spoons, we acquire companies with the expectation of owning and operating them indefinitely, and we look forward to realizing Vimeo’s full potential as we reach new heights together," Ferrari continued. "In particular, after closing, we’re determined to make ambitious investments in the U.S. and other priority markets, and all key areas of the business, spanning both the creator and enterprise offerings. We'll focus on achieving even more stellar levels of performance and reliability, bringing advanced features to more customers, and continuing to release powerful and responsible AI-enabled features."
Expanding AI opportunities
Bending Spoons is known both for its innovative application of AI-driven features and its propensity to gut the companies it purchases. Shortly after the Streamyard acquisition last year, Bending Spoons laid off nearly all of the existing Hopin and Streamyard staff, including more than 40 software engineers and product managers — a pattern the company has followed with many of its acquisitions, including Evernote and WeTransfer, when a large percentage of the respective existing staffs were let go. Changes are frequently made to subscription models and feature sets, as well.
That said, Vimeo CEO Philip Moyer underscored what he sees as the benefits of the deal: "Bending Spoons has tremendous respect for the Vimeo team, our customers and the creator community we serve," he said. "Luca and his team are committed to expanding our product across all segments: self-serve, OTT/Vimeo Streaming and Vimeo Enterprise. We are excited about this partnership, which we believe will unlock even greater focus for our team and customers as we continue to strive towards our global mission to be the most innovative and trusted video platform in the world for businesses."
