AOL Sold to Italian Tech Company Bending Spoons

Bending Spoons, an Italian technology company, has agreed to acquire AOL from Yahoo.

The acquisition, announced Wednesday (Oct. 29), follows weeks of reports that AOL, a one-time web titan, was up for sale.

“AOL is an iconic, beloved business that’s in good health, has stood the test of time, and we believe has unexpressed potential,” Bending Spoons CEO and Co-founder Luca Ferrari said in a press release. “By our estimation, AOL is one of the top ten most-used email providers in the world, with a highly retained customer base counting around 8 million daily and 30 million monthly active users. We intend to invest significantly to help the product and the business flourish.”

He added that his company has never sold an acquired business, and that was confident Bending Spoons was the “right long-term steward for AOL.”

“AOL and Yahoo share a great deal of history, and our new team has enjoyed the opportunity to return AOL to growth,” added Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo. “This transaction will allow us to focus more deeply on the aggressive roadmaps we have planned for Yahoo’s core products moving forward, while ensuring AOL continues to thrive under new ownership.”

AOL is not the only high-profile brand Bending Spoons has set its sights on. The company said it last month announced a definitive agreement to acquire video platform Vimeo.

While no specific dollar amount was attached to the deal, Bending Spoons said it recently completed a $2.8 billion debt financing package, to help cover this and future acquisitions. That package includes commitments from several high-profile banks, including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and BNP Paribas.

A report by The Wall Street Journal before the deal was concluded, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the acquisition could value AOL at $1.5 billion.

Yahoo, itself owned by private equity group Apollo Global Management, purchased AOL from Verizon in 2021 in a $5 billion deal. That’s slightly more than the $4.4 billion Verizon paid for the company in 2015.

The deal comes weeks after dial-up internet, at one-time AOL’s hallmark, came to an end in the U.S. AOL ceased dial-up service at the end of September. A report by the Associated Press earlier this month cited Census Bureau data showing that a handful of American consumers — 163,401 households, or 0.13% of homes with internet access — used their telephone lines to connect the web as of 2023.