Berkshire raises Bending Spoons stake to 4% with fresh $330 million bet
- Warren Buffett's crew doubles down on Bending Spoons after July IPO, buying 10 million shares at $33 each—a 40% pop for the Milan-based app mortician.
- Bending Spoons, the digital undertaker that buys dying platforms like Evernote and Vimeo, now has 4% of its corpse-corpse owned by Omaha's finest.
- The investment is framed as 'financial flexibility'—translation: more cash to throw at companies that peaked in 2012 and promptly forgot how to die.
- Portfolio reads like a 'Remember When?' list from a dead tech blog: AOL, Eventbrite, Brightcove. Why not just buy a MySpace timeshare?
- Share surge of 40% in early trading proves once again: nothing juices a stock like convincing a 94-year-old oracle you're the next See's Candies.
Brief Summary
In a move that screams 'we have no idea what apps do but our actuaries say Evernote users still pay for premium,' Berkshire Hathaway has shoveled another $330 million into Bending Spoons, the Italy-based digital asset flipper that buys tech brands on life support and squeezes them for subscription juice. The new private placement of 10 million shares at $33 each lifts Berkshire's stake to 4%, following its $600 million post-IPO contribution in July—because apparently one bad bet wasn't enough to distract from the fact that this company's strategy is basically 'buy low, sell even lower, but charge monthly.' CEO Francesco Patarnello swears the fresh cash will fund 'acquisition opportunities,' which is kindly corporate code for 'we're going to keep buying your childhood internet favorites and turn them into subscription-based husks.'
Why This Matters
For you, the average reader, this is a sobering reminder that the investing world has fully embraced the 'zombie portfolio'—where value isn't created, it's strip-mined from nostalgia. Bending Spoons' business model depends on you paying $5.99 a month to preserve digital memories from AOL chatrooms and Vimeo's 2011 glory days. Berkshire's involvement lends a veneer of legitimacy to the practice of buying beloved platforms, gutting their features, and shipping them to an early grave with a premium tier. Your takeaway? If you hold any of these stocks, congratulate yourself on a 40% paper gain. If you hold any of their products, start exporting your data before the next 'strategic simplification' wipes it clean.