Bending Spoons to acquire AOL

Bending Spoons, 1 of Europe’s largest mobile app developers, announced connected Wednesday that it has agreed to bargain AOL from Yahoo, which is backed by backstage equity elephantine Apollo. Bending Spoons says it has secured a $2.8 cardinal indebtedness financing bundle to enactment the purchase.

The acquisition is expected to adjacent by the extremity of the twelvemonth and is taxable to closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

“AOL is an iconic, beloved concern that’s successful bully health, has stood the trial of time, and we judge has unexpressed potential,” said Bending Spoons CEO and co-founder, Luca Ferrari, successful a press release.

“By our estimation, AOL is 1 of the apical 10 most-used email providers successful the world, with a highly retained lawsuit basal counting astir 8 cardinal regular and 30 cardinal monthly progressive users,” helium continued. “We mean to put importantly to assistance the merchandise and the concern flourish. Bending Spoons has ne'er sold an acquired business—we’re assured we’re the close semipermanent steward for AOL, and look guardant to serving its large, loyal lawsuit basal for galore years to come.”

The quality doesn’t travel arsenic a surprise, arsenic Reuters reported earlier this period that Yahoo was successful talks to merchantability AOL to Bending Spoons for astir $1.4 billion.

Wednesday’s quality signals a caller section for AOL, which was erstwhile 1 of the astir recognized brands connected the internet, known for its email work and “You’ve Got Mail” notification. AOL has had respective owners implicit the past decades. It was owned by Time Warner from 2001 to 2009, and past by Verizon Communications from 2015 to 2021.

The acquisition marks Bending Spoon’s latest acquisition successful a drawstring of different American brands similar Vimeo, Evernote, Meetup, and more.