European company takes over video platform Vimeo
A little older than YouTube, but not as successful: Vimeo goes Italian for 1.2 billion euros.
Rumors about Bending Spoon's interest in Vimeo were already circulating last year, and now an agreement has been reached.
(Image: SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock.com)
The American video platform Vimeo is getting new owners: Bending Spoons from Milan is offering 1.38 billion US dollars, which corresponds to 7.85 US dollars per share. Vimeo's Board of Directors unanimously recommends that shareholders accept the offer. After all, it is 91 percent above the volume-weighted average price of the last 60 days.
The transaction is expected to be completed this year, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. Vimeo will then no longer be listed on the stock exchange. “As Bending Spoons, we acquire companies with the expectation of owning and operating them indefinitely,” said Luca Ferrari, CEO and co-founder of Bending Spoons. “We are committed to ambitious investments in the US and other major markets, and in all key areas, both in services for creators and large enterprises.” The mention of artificial intelligence is, of course, not to be missed in the announcement of the takeover bid.
Vimeo is headquartered in New York City. The video platform was launched in 2004 by Zach Klein and Jake Lodwick as part of the CollegeHumor company, a few months before YouTube. IAC acquired a majority stake in Vimeo in 2006, and Klein and Lodwick left the company in 2008. As YouTube already belonged to Google at the time and was successful in the consumer market, IAC geared the Vimeo offering towards business customers. Subsequently, Vimeo developed software for video creation, editing, and transmission—solutions for large companies and professional filmmakers.
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Not a stock market star
On May 25, 2021, Vimeo was spun off through an IPO. This paid off for IAC, but not for most investors. Although the opening price of USD 47.15 initially rose to as much as USD 57, the issue price was never reached again from mid-July 2021. Eleven months after the IPO, Vimeo's share price reached single digits for the first time, with a historic low of 3.03 dollars.
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Bending Spoons is a Milan-based company that has acquired several well-known applications in recent years, including WeTransfer, StreamYard, and the Potsdam-based company behind the hiking app Komoot. Bending Spoons' portfolio also includes Evernote and Meetup. The Italians don't hesitate when it comes to acquisitions: after buying Evernote, they said goodbye to almost all of their employees. Bending Spoons has also laid off a large part of the workforce in other acquisitions.
There is no mention of job guarantees for the Vimeo workforce in the current announcement. “We are confident that (Bending Spoons) is the right long-term partner for our customers, employees, and the brand,” says Glenn Schiffman, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Vimeo.
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