在7月纳斯达克上市时，Bending Spoons是一家鲜为人知的意大利控股公司，旗下拥有AOL、Vimeo、Eventbrite和Evernote等老牌互联网品牌。
At the time of its Nasdaq debut in July, Bending Spoons was a little-known holding company out of Italy that owned older internet names like AOL, Vimeo, Eventbrite and Evernote.
不到四个月后，这家总部位于米兰的公司已成为前高速增长软件初创企业的意外归宿——这些企业因人工智能热潮而被边缘化。本周，其并购计划得到了地球上最著名控股公司的重大推动：伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司。
Less than four months later, the Milan-based firm has emerged as a surprising home for former high-flying software startups that have been thrust aside by the artificial intelligence boom. Its M&A plan got a major boost this week from the most famous holding company on the planet: Berkshire Hathaway.
伯克希尔被Bending Spoons描述为其战略的“长期灵感”，目前已向该公司投资超过9亿美元，其中包括周三披露的3.3亿美元股份。华尔街对这笔交易反应热烈，推动Bending Spoons股价上涨41%，尽管随后一周部分涨幅被吞噬，但公司市值仍约为300亿美元。
Berkshire, which Bending Spoons describes as a "longstanding inspiration" for its strategy, has now invested over $900 million in the company, including a $330 million stake disclosed on Wednesday. Wall Street loved the deal, sending Bending Spoons' stock up 41%, though some of those gains were lost later in the week, leaving the company with a market cap of about $30 billion.
“伯克希尔在IPO仅几个月后、且在此估值水平下加码持仓，这为全球最受尊敬的长期投资者之一对Bending Spoons模式的信任再添一票，”瑞穗分析师在公告后发布的报告中写道。
"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," wrote analysts at Mizuho, in a report after the announcement.
本周Bending Spoons的另一则重大新闻凸显了其业务的另一面：裁员。8月，Bending Spoons宣布将以约13亿美元收购工作流软件提供商Airtable，这一价格几乎低于该公司2021年底巅峰估值的90%。Bending Spoons周一表示，Airtable的“大部分收购前团队”将随“丰厚的离岗补偿包”离开。此前，Evernote、Vimeo、WeTransfer及其组合中的其他公司已实施裁员。
The other big news out of Bending Spoons this week underscores the flipside of the business: job cuts. In August, Bending Spoons announced it was buying workflow software provider Airtable for about $1.3 billion, or almost 90% below the company's peak valuation from late 2021. Bending Spoons said Monday that a "large portion of the pre-acquisition team" from Airtable would be leaving with "substantial separation packages." Layoffs were previously implemented at Evernote, Vimeo, WeTransfer and others in the portfolio.
对于科技行业而言，Bending Spoons的举动代表了AI时代财富转变速度之快的最新例证——由大语言模型驱动的新型智能体正在取代软件开发者及其所构建的产品。随着Anthropic和OpenAI迈向万亿美元估值，企业正将更有价值的工作交由这些公司处理，以牺牲众多软件即服务（SaaS）品牌为代价，这一现象被称为“SaaSpocalypse”。
For the technology industry, Bending Spoons' moves represent the latest example of how quickly fortunes are turning in the AI era, as new agents powered by large language models displace software developers and the products they built. With Anthropic and OpenAI marching toward trillion-dollar valuations, businesses are putting more valuable work in their hands at the expense of a host of software-as-a-service names, creating a phenomenon that's become known as the "SaaSpocalypse."
Intuit、HubSpot和Adobe的股价今年均下跌至少30%，曾是风险投资宠儿的众多私营SaaS公司如今正苦苦寻找资本，公开市场对IPO毫无兴趣。上个月，Bending Spoons同意以13.6亿美元收购协作软件供应商Miro，而Miro曾估值达175亿美元。
Shares of Intuit, HubSpot and Adobe are all down at least 30% this year, and a long list of private SaaS companies that were once venture darlings are now struggling to find capital, with the public market showing no appetite for IPOs. Last month, Bending Spoons agreed to buy collaboration software vendor Miro, once valued at $17.5 billion, for $1.36 billion.
“你要么是热门的东西，要么就是一无所有，”Chemistry VC的创始人兼管理合伙人、资深软件投资人Ethan Kurzweil说道。Kurzweil表示他使用Airtable，并称市场上仍有许多由优秀团队领衔的优秀SaaS产品，“但它们已不再处于前沿。”Bending Spoons由朋友Luca Ferrari（首席执行官）、Matteo Danieli和Francesco Patarnello于2013年创立。
"You're either like a hot thing or you're nothing," said Ethan Kurzweil, founder and managing partner at Chemistry VC and a veteran software investor. Kurzweil said he uses Airtable, and said there are plenty of good SaaS products on the market led by solid teams, "but they're not on the frontier anymore." Bending Spoons was launched in 2013 by friends Luca Ferrari, the CEO, Matteo Danieli and Francesco Patarnello.
他们曾开发的一款名为Evertale的移动应用未能取得成功，于是他们用剩下的4万美元建立了一家运营公司，而不是“开发没人想要的产品”，据其IPO招股说明书所述。
A mobile app they'd created called Evertale failed to take off, and they used the $40,000 they had left to build an operating company instead of "products nobody wanted," according to the IPO prospectus.
Bending Spoons在过去几年宣布了其所有重大交易，始于2022年的Evernote，随后是2024年的Brightcove，以及2025年的Vimeo、AOL和Eventbrite。
Bending Spoons has announced all of its biggest deals in the last few years, beginning with Evernote in 2022, followed by Brightcove in 2024, and Vimeo, AOL and Eventbrite in 2025.
该公司于6月30日进行IPO，以每股29美元的价格筹集约17亿美元，次日登陆纳斯达克。周五股价收盘于47.07美元。
The company held its IPO on June 30, raising about $1.7 billion at $29 a share, and hit the Nasdaq the next day. The stock closed Friday at $47.07.
在Bending Spoons最近进军企业软件领域之前，过去十年里该领域的一些主要收购方是私募股权巨头Thoma Bravo和Vista Equity Partners。这些公司旨在收购他们认为被低估的SaaS公司，并通过成本削减、效率提升和并购整合的组合方式，将其转化为可以以更高价格出售或上市的资产。
Prior to Bending Spoons' recent jump into enterprise software, some of the leading acquirers in the space over the past decade were private equity behemoths Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners. Those firms were aiming to buy what they viewed as undervalued SaaS companies and, through a combination of cost cuts, efficiency improvements and rollups, turn them into assets that could be sold or taken public at a higher price.
Bending Spoons采用了不同的策略。该公司并不寻求最终退出，而是希望通过其收购的业务获取利润，这与沃伦·巴菲特的模式相似。但与伯克希尔不同的是，Bending Spoons的重点是技术，并且它正在通过自身的软件、运营和人员决策采取亲力亲为的方式。
Bending Spoons is using a different playbook. The company isn't looking for eventual exits but rather wants to generate profits from the businesses it buys, similar to the Warren Buffett model. But unlike Berkshire, Bending Spoons' focus is technology, and it's taking a hands-on approach with its own software, operations and personnel decisions.
前云软件供应商Gainsight首席执行官Nick Mehta表示，私募股权公司如今受到限制，因为“他们吃了亏”。“他们付出了远更高的价格，并且陷入了众多问题公司，现在很难进行大手笔的投资。”Mehta在2020年将Gainsight出售给Vista。
Nick Mehta, former CEO of cloud software vendor Gainsight, said private equity firms are limited now because "they got their nose bloodied." "They paid much higher prices and have so many troubled companies that it's difficult for them to take swings now," said Mehta, who sold Gainsight to Vista in 2020.
Thoma Bravo和Vista未回应采访请求。Bending Spoons在向CNBC的声明中表示，它在“几年”内未曾在竞标目标时被其他方出价更高。随着公司开始进军SaaS领域，Mehta表示，“被Bending Spoons收购”在硅谷已成为一个动词，指的是公司以极低价格被收购。
Thoma Bravo and Vista didn't respond to requests for interviews. Bending Spoons told CNBC in a statement that it hadn't been outbid for a target in "several years." As the company started jumping into SaaS, Mehta said "Bending Spooned" became a verb in Silicon Valley, referring to companies getting scooped up for pennies on the dollar.
“不幸的是，我在这个领域的许多朋友现在陷入了困境，”Mehta说。“投资者想要退出，但没有买家。任何在ChatGPT之前的东西现在都被视为遗留系统。”瑞穗银行分析师Lloyd Walmsley表示，Bending Spoons的模式与传统的杠杆收购方式截然不同。
"Unfortunately, a lot of my friends in that game are stuck," Mehta said. "Investors want out but there are no buyers. Anything pre-ChatGPT is legacy now." Lloyd Walmsley, an analyst at Mizuho, said Bending Spoons' model is distinct from the older buyout approach.
“我认为很少有人能像这些人一样，在运营深度和愿意进行重大产品变更方面做到如此程度，” 沃姆斯利在接受采访时说。“传统私募股权公司几乎不会做出如此程度的变更。” 对于弯曲勺子收购的公司的客户来说，价格可能会突然上涨。
"I think there aren't a lot of people that do what these guys do in terms of the depth of operations and the willingness to make substantial product changes," Walmsley said in an interview. "It's not typical of traditional private equity firms to make anywhere near this level of change." For customers of the companies that Bending Spoons buys, sudden price hikes can follow.
2023年4月，在收购印象笔记几个月后，弯曲勺子将个人年度订阅价格从70美元提高到130美元。随后，该公司调整了其产品，所谓的入门计划收费100美元，而“印象笔记高级版”收费250美元，此前专业版的收费为170美元。
In April 2023, months after the Evernote acquisition, Bending Spoons lifted the annual personal subscription price to $130 from $70. Later, the company changed its offerings, charging $100 for its so-called starter plan and $250 for "Evernote Advanced," compared to the $170 it had been charging for the pro plan.
“我的第一反应是，哦，天哪，我想我可能得切换到OneNote了，” 沃姆斯利说，指的是微软的笔记应用。但他表示他仍然继续使用印象笔记。
"My first reaction was like, Oh man, I guess I have to switch to OneNote," said Walmsley, referring to Microsoft's notetaking app. But he said he stuck with Evernote.
“他们真的很擅长发现这些能提供大量价值的东西，而且切换成本真的很高，” 沃姆斯利说。”相对于切换成本来说，价格其实并不高。” 弯曲勺子利用其投资组合公司的利润用于未来增长，费拉里在周四接受CNBC采访时表示，其中“绝大部分”来自于进行更多交易。
"They're really savvy at finding these things that they provide a lot of value, and the switching costs are really high," Walmsley said. "The price isn't that high relative to the switching cost." Bending Spoons uses the profits from its portfolio companies for future growth, the "overwhelming majority" of which comes from doing more deals, Ferrari told CNBC in an interview on Thursday.
“在最初的几年里，我们可以解锁一些改进机会，之后该业务将拥有该市场固有的任何有机增长，” 费拉里说。
"There are certain opportunities for improvement we can unlock over the first few years, and then the business will have whatever organic growth is intrinsic in that market," Ferrari said.
对于伯克希尔及其 fellow Bending Spoons 投资者来说，这一赌注仍未被证实。
For Berkshire and its fellow Bending Spoons investors, the bet is still unproven.
这些产品必须保持足够的吸引力，以至于客户愿意在AI正在压缩软件行业大部分利润空间的时候支付更高费用。作为一家上市公司，弯曲勺子在八月的首份财报中表示，收入较去年同期翻了一倍多，达到超过7亿美元，增长几乎完全由收购推动，而净利润增长了171%，达到1.77亿美元。
The products have to remain desirable enough that customers are willing to pay up at a time when AI is squeezing margins across much of the software sector. In its first earnings report as a public company in August, Bending Spoons said revenue more than doubled from a year earlier to over $700 million, with growth almost entirely driven by acquisitions, while net income climbed 171% to $177 million.
在Airtable交易完成之前，Miro尚未公布。在未来的季度和年里，华尔街将能够清楚地看到该公司的结构是否能够复兴软件业务。
That was before the Airtable deal had closed and Miro had yet to be announced. In the coming quarters and years, Wall Street will get a clear picture of whether the firm's structure can revive software.
在8月的财报电话会议上，一位分析师询问Airtable是否代表了并购策略向企业方向的长期转变。
On the earnings call in August, an analyst asked whether Airtable represents a long-term shift in the M&A strategy towards enterprise.
费拉里表示，Bending Spoons已经有一半的收入来自专业业务，主要通过Brightcove和Vimeo实现，而Vimeo具备企业业务组成部分。他表示，近期对软件的关注更多与他在一次大规模抛售后发现价值的地方有关。
Ferrari said that about half of Bending Spoons' revenue already comes from professional businesses, largely through Brightcove and Vimeo, which has an enterprise component. The focus on software of late, he said, has more to do with where he's finding value after a hefty selloff.
“直到最近之前，大多数企业SaaS公司的估值一直处于非理性的高位，”费拉里说。“我们从未见过这些价格有任何意义。”
"Most enterprise SaaS businesses were valued at irrationally high levels until somewhat recently," Ferrari said. "We never saw those prices making any sense."