An Italian company that built its business on acquiring "outdated software" is becoming one of the most noteworthy bets for Berkshire Hathaway in the post-Buffett era.

According to a report, Berkshire Hathaway has once again made a move, investing an additional $330 million in Italian technology M&A company Bending Spoons S.p.A.. After the news became public, Bending Spoons shares surged more than 41% in a single day. This is Berkshire's second investment since participating in the company's IPO in July this year with a $600 million commitment, raising its stake to 4%.

The investment was completed through a directed share issuance, with Bending Spoons issuing 10 million common shares to Berkshire at a price of $33 per share. As of Wednesday's close, Bending Spoons shares had accumulated gains of nearly 84% since its listing day, reaching a market capitalization of $34 billion. At one point during intraday trading, the gain reached 54.7%. Berkshire's Class A shares rose 1.2% on the same day.

This transaction is also the latest signal of accelerated capital deployment since new CEO Greg Abel took the helm of Berkshire. In the second quarter of this year, Abel had already invested nearly $20 billion in the stock market, ending a three-year streak of net selling. Berkshire currently holds $365 billion in cash on its books, and the market is closely watching how Abel will convert it into substantive investments.

"App Renovation Factory": Acquire, Downsize, Raise Prices, Reinvest

Bending Spoons was co-founded by Luca Ferrari and four others in 2013, headquartered in Milan. The company's business logic is: specifically acquiring digital apps that were once popular but have lost growth momentum, restructuring cost structures through large-scale layoffs, AI-rewritten code, adjusted pricing and business models, converting them into stable cash flow, and then reinvesting profits into the next acquisition.

Its asset list covers AOL, Vimeo, Evernote, Eventbrite, and a batch of formerly star internet products. According to the prospectus, the company has completed more than 50 acquisitions and has locked in over 1,000 potential acquisition targets across Europe and North America.

Ferrari stated at a private capital summit held in London last week: "We allocate capital in a way that maximizes earnings per share 10 or 20 years from now. Whether it's achieved through productivity tools, enterprise video infrastructure, or dating apps, we don't care."

He also stated: "We have long believed that this company could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the future."

Three Case Studies: How to Turn "Outdated Products" into Cash Flow Machines

Evernote was once a note-taking software with over 100 million users globally, but gradually fell behind after being eroded by new tools like Notion and Microsoft OneNote. In 2022, Bending Spoons acquired it for approximately $200 million, immediately cutting its U.S. and Chile teams, relocating operations to Europe, rewriting the underlying code with AI tools, launching 250 major improvements within two and a half years, and significantly raising subscription prices. According to prospectus data, Evernote's average monthly net revenue on mobile grew from $1.5 million in the six months before acquisition to $2.1 million in the most recent six months.

Vimeo was spun off from IAC and listed in 2021, with shares once reaching as high as $57, but remained depressed for a long time under the impact of the short-video wave. In September 2025, Bending Spoons acquired it for $1.38 billion, cutting its consumer business, transforming into enterprise video services, and using AI to drive B2B infrastructure.

AOL was once an internet giant with a market value exceeding $100 billion, but after the dial-up era ended, it changed hands several times and became a marginal asset. Bending Spoons discovered that it still had approximately 8 million daily active users and over $500 million in annual revenue. In October 2025, it completed the acquisition for approximately $1.5 billion, using AI automation to take over back-end operations, converting this revenue into stable cash flow with near-zero marketing costs.

Financial Data: Revenue Doubled for Two Consecutive Years, Capital Markets Are Buying In

The prospectus shows that Bending Spoons' revenue from 2023 to 2025 was $387 million, $671 million, and $1.3 billion respectively, nearly doubling for two consecutive years; during the same period, gross profit grew from $236 million to $857 million.

In 2025, due to large-scale M&A and related costs, net profit fell from $89 million the previous year to roughly break-even, but this did not diminish market recognition of its model. Wall Street views it as a new paradigm for tech companies — not relying on continuously creating new products, but achieving growth through long-term operation of existing software assets.

This logic has similarities with Canadian software giant Constellation Software, but the paths differ: Constellation focuses on B2B vertical industry software with a decentralized management approach; Bending Spoons applies the same M&A logic to the consumer application market and replaces traditional human integration with a highly integrated AI technology middle platform. Ferrari has stated that over 90% of the company's code commits are written or co-written by AI.

Berkshire's Endorsement, Mutual Recognition Between Both Parties

Bending Spoons co-founder and head of business M&A Francesco Patarnello said in a statement: "Bending Spoons continues to evaluate M&A opportunities, and our M&A pipeline remains robust. We believe Berkshire Hathaway's investment reflects its confidence in our team and platform, and will further enhance our financial flexibility and our ability to pursue quality acquisitions within the framework of our overall financing strategy."

Ferrari described Berkshire as "one of the best and most respected capital allocators in the world" and called it a "long-time spiritual role model" for the company. He said in a statement: "We are delighted to welcome Berkshire Hathaway as a shareholder at the time of listing, and this additional investment further consolidates this partnership, demonstrating mutual respect and shared expectations for the future."

However, Bending Spoons also continues to face criticism from the outside, mainly focused on two points: the large-scale layoffs it routinely implements after acquisitions, and limited financial disclosure — the latter making it difficult for outsiders to independently assess the actual operating performance of acquired assets.