Bending Spoons Agrees to Buy AOL for $1.5B

Milan-based Bending Spoons has agreed to buy AOL from Apollo/Yahoo for roughly $1.5 billion, in a transaction expected to close by the end of the year (or by the end of 2025) subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The buyer secured a $2.8 billion debt financing package from a global bank syndicate to fund the acquisition and future M&A and R&D investment. AOL generates more than $500 million in revenue and roughly $400 million in annual earnings and serves about 8 million daily and 30 million monthly active users after retiring its dial-up service. Bending Spoons, which has bought and revamped digital brands including Evernote, WeTransfer, Meetup and Remini and is pursuing Vimeo, said it will invest significantly in AOL and intends to hold the brand long-term. The deal is the latest in AOL’s long history of ownership changes (including Time Warner, Verizon and Apollo) and signals a renewed push to modernize the once-dominant internet portal and email service.