Italian software group Bending Spoons, famous for buying undervalued tech companies and turning them profitable, announced on Tuesday (4) a definitive agreement to acquire Airtable, the maker of the popular collaborative spreadsheet and database platform. The all-cash deal values Airtable at $1.285 billion in enterprise value — and, combined with the company's net cash balance, implies an equity value of roughly $2.25 billion. It is Bending Spoons' first acquisition since it went public in July at an $18 billion valuation.
Airtable was founded in 2013 and has raised more than $1.4 billion across multiple rounds. During the euphoric days of 2021 it was worth over $11 billion; earlier this year, however, its shares were said to be trading on secondary markets at a $4 billion valuation. The agreed price now represents a considerable discount to those peaks, which fits Bending Spoons' thesis perfectly: acquire solid assets trading below their private value, trim costs, streamline products and chase profitability.
Despite the lower valuation, the operating numbers remain healthy. In a statement, Bending Spoons founder Luca Ferrari highlighted that Airtable's annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew more than 20% year over year, to approximately $480 million as of June 2026. In January, the company unveiled a new product line under the Superagent moniker, an orchestration platform that lets users spin up a team of AI agents to handle tasks. CEO Howie Liu said at the time that Airtable serves more than 500,000 organizations, including 80% of the Fortune 100.
The deal follows a playbook Bending Spoons has already applied to well-known brands such as Evernote, WeTransfer, Eventbrite and Vimeo. The track record has not always been smooth: the Evernote acquisition, for instance, stirred controversy over aggressive staff cuts. The open question is how the company will treat Airtable's workforce and whether the platform's innovation pace will hold after the change of control.
There is an important market takeaway here. Airtable was one of the darlings of the low-interest-rate era, when growth at any cost was rewarded. Acquiring it at a multiple far below its peak reinforces the consolidation trend in enterprise software, in which profitable, financially disciplined companies absorb players that could not sustain boom-era valuations. The move also signals appetite for assets with strong ARR, even in a more expensive credit environment.
It remains to be seen whether Bending Spoons can pull off the same trick it did with Evernote and Vimeo — turning a brand beloved by users into an efficient business without alienating the base that made it grow. The integration of Superagent and the bet on AI agents could be the differentiator that justifies the price paid. The next quarter will be decisive in measuring whether revenue keeps growing under new management.
From a user perspective, the deal raises practical questions: will Airtable's generous free tier survive a cost-focused owner, and how will pricing evolve under new leadership? Long-time customers who built entire workflows on the platform have learned to watch such acquisitions closely, knowing that strategy shifts can arrive quickly after a change of control.
Sources: TechCrunch, Bending Spoons Investor Relations, Magica
✓ Independent sources cross-checked and verified before publishing
