Italy’s Bending Spoons ready for IPO, warns of AI bubble

Bending Spoons' IPO Plans and AI Bubble Risks

By Elvira Pollina

CEO Insights on IPO Timing

MILAN (Reuters) -Italian tech company Bending Spoons could list as early as next year, when it expects to double adjusted earnings after buying video streaming platform Vimeo and web portal AOL, its chief executive told Reuters.

Acquisitions and Earnings Projections

In a wide-ranging interview, one of Europe's leading tech investors and operators joined other business leaders in warning about the risk of an artificial intelligence bubble, and urged Europe to focus on deregulation to retain innovative companies.

Concerns About the AI Market

"I don't know if we'll list next year, but we're ready. Every year could be the right one," CEO Luca Ferrari said.

Future Growth and Expansion Plans

Should it decide to go public, Bending Spoons will probably list in the United States, where tech companies tend to achieve higher valuations, he added.

After closing the AOL and the Vimeo deals, Bending Spoons expects its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to reach $1.4 billion next year, from $700 million in 2025, Ferrari said.

AI BUBBLE RISK

The company has grown by buying and revamping storied digital firms such as file-sharing service WeTransfer and note-taking tool Evernote. It was valued at $11 billion in a funding round in October.

Ferrari drew parallels between the AI sector today and conditions that preceded the dot.com crash of the early 2000s.

"Alongside a few solid projects and companies with real value and potentially reasonable - if a bit high - valuations, there are a lot of worthless ventures being valued at absurdly high levels," he said, without naming any firms.

He added that Bending Spoons preferred to invest in companies that had been slow to adopt AI, and then use the technology to improve their products. 

At Vimeo, the plan is for AI to automate time-consuming processes such as converting video formats, generating subtitles, and automatic translation.

For AOL, the immediate focus will be on improving content recommendations to boost advertising performance, before modernising its email service to match leading competitors.

Ferrari, who co-founded Bending Spoons in 2013, said the European Union's efforts to create a single set of rules for startups to operate across the 27-country bloc were "well-intentioned, but flawed".

"First, there should be a move to aggressively deregulate the framework across all EU countries, and only then would it become value-adding to harmonize whatever rules are left," he said.

Bending Spoons employs over 1,000 people, with around 1,250 more joining from Vimeo and AOL, mostly based in the United States.

"We may implement some efficiencies at Vimeo and AOL where necessary. But we are in a growth phase," Ferrari said, adding that the company was considering opening offices in Madrid and Warsaw.

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina. Editing by Anousha Sakoui and Mark Potter)