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Anyone of a certain age will remember Uri Geller, the magician who became a big star in the 1970s for bending spoons with his mind, a trick that was later discredited. Given that sorry history, you might wonder why an internet conglomerate based in Italy chose Bending Spoons as its name. Is the management trying to prove it can perform acts of corporate magic? Perhaps (its logo is “Impossible.Maybe”). That could explain why Bending Spoons is snapping up numerous faded U.S. internet companies.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that Bending Spoons was in talks to buy AOL from Apollo-owned Yahoo for $1.4 billion. That follows its $1.38 billion purchase of video tech firm Vimeo three weeks ago and its February acquisition of another video tech firm, Brightcove, as well as its 2023 purchase of hot-no-more productivity software firm Evernote. (A spokesperson quoted CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari saying the firm buys tech businesses “with untapped potential” which it invests in to “unlock that potential.”) But while Bending Spoons is looking backward for acquisition targets, the rest of tech is embracing dealmaking of a different sort.
In recent months, big tech companies and midsize enterprise software firms including Google, Meta Platforms, Salesforce, Atlassian and ServiceNow are snapping up a variety of firms, mostly focused on artificial intelligence. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Uber had bought a Belgian data-labeling startup, Segments.ai. And according to Sullivan & Cromwell partner Francis Aquila, a top mergers and acquisitions lawyer, more big deals are coming.
Speaking on The Information’s TITV on Thursday, Aquila predicted that big tech firms would be more active as buyers, along with private equity firms, which have long been active in the tech M&A market. Aquila said while big tech firms will face regulatory scrutiny in doing acquisitions, because of the changes wrought by AI, consolidation will be necessary “and government regulators will accept that.” (It helps that the Trump administration appears more favorably inclined toward tech than its predecessor). His comments were echoed by Wall Street firm Wedbush Securities, which on Wednesday said in a report, “We anticipate significant consolidation” within tech over the next five to 10 years, as big tech firms and “financial buyers” take advantage of increasing demand for AI. Sounds more interesting than a bunch of bent spoons.
Elon Musk’s Netflix Boycott
Elon Musk last year sued advertisers for boycotting X after marketers abandoned the site over concerns about its content. Now, Musk is trying to stage his own boycott—against Netflix.
Musk has posted or reposted “calls to cancel Netflix…at least 26 times” in the past three days, according to Variety, apparently sparked by other X accounts complaining about a transgender character in an animated series from 2022 that Netflix has since canceled. Today, for instance, he reposted messages claiming the company was “actively pushing…transgender propaganda” on users and was “hellbent on ideological indoctrination.”
Musk has a lot of fans, but can he move the needle on Netflix’s giant audience? Investors don’t seem too concerned. Netflix stock has dropped 3.6% in the past four days. Chances are, Musk will lose interest and move on. But if he doesn’t, this is a battle worth watching.
In Other News
• SoftBank, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and others funded a $6.6 billion OpenAI employee share sale that valued the company at $500 billion, said a person with knowledge of the deal (more here).
• Tesla delivered 497,000 vehicles in the third quarter of 2025, up 7% year over year, as the impending end of a U.S. federal tax credit for electric vehicles at the end of September contributed to a surge in sales.
• Salesforce is jumping aboard the vibe-coding trend, launching a new service that lets developers create applications by describing the features and functionality they want using simple text prompts.
Today on The Information’s TITV
Check out today's episode of TITV in which we discuss the stickiness of AI startups‘ early revenue, the M&A landscape for big tech, and Ty Haney’s approach to building a community of customers.
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