Bend spoons for AOL

Bending Spoons, one of Europe’s largest mobile app developers, announced Wednesday that it has agreed to buy AOL from Yahoo, which is backed by private equity giant Apollo. Bending Spoons says it has secured a $2.8 billion debt financing package to support the purchase.

The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year and is subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

“AOL is an iconic, beloved, healthy company that has stood the test of time, and we believe it has unheralded potential,” Luca Ferrari, CEO and co-founder of Bending Spoons, said in a press release.

“By our estimates, AOL is one of the top ten most widely used email service providers in the world, with a highly retained customer base of approximately 8 million daily users and 30 million monthly active users,” he continued. “We intend to invest significantly to help the product and business thrive. Bending Spoons has never sold an acquired company – we are confident that we are the right agent for AOL for the long term, and we look forward to serving its large and loyal customer base for many years to come.”

This news was not surprising, as Reuters reported earlier this month that Yahoo was in talks to sell AOL to Bending Spoons for about $1.4 billion.

Wednesday’s news signals a new chapter for AOL, once one of the Internet’s most iconic brands, known for its email service and “You’ve Got Mail” notification. AOL has had many owners over the past decades. It was owned by Time Warner from 2001 to 2009, then by Verizon Communications from 2015 to 2021.

This acquisition marks Bending Spoon’s latest purchase in a series of other US brands such as Vimeo, Evernote, Meetup and more.