Italy Backs €500m Loan for Company Owning AOL
Italy’s state has backed a €500 million loan facility for the company that owns AOL.
SACE: Italy’s Export Credit Agency
SACE, Italy’s export credit agency owned by the treasury, is providing the guarantee. Bending Spoons plans to use this money to acquire more companies, with most of its current portfolio being American.
July 28, 2026 – 5:14 pm
Image by: Bending Spoons
Bending Spoons has secured a €500 million loan facility guaranteed by SACE. The deal matures in March 2031. HSBC Continental Europe, Intesa Sanpaolo, and BPER Banca facilitated the arrangement.
Purpose of the Loan
"Our aim is to maximize long-term value per share, and we remain focused on deploying capital in a disciplined way to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns, primarily through acquisitions," stated Davide Scarpazza, co-chief financial officer at Bending Spoons.
SACE, with its €290 billion guarantees across 200 markets, aims to foster exports and support Italian businesses’ international growth.
A National Champion Acquires Foreign Businesses
Most of the companies Bending Spoons has acquired are American. This includes Evernote (January 2023), Meetup (January 2024), StreamYard (April 2024), WeTransfer (Dutch, July 2024), komoot (German, early 2025), Brightcove and komoot (early 2025), Vimeo (November 2025), AOL (January 2026), Eventbrite (March 2026).
The Italian state is thus backing debt to help a national champion acquire foreign internet businesses.
Larger Financing Package
This loan facility is part of a larger €1.49 billion financing package, including:
- €495 million in additional term loan A funding
- €490 million increase to its revolving credit facility
All these facilities mature in March 2031.
IPO and Debt Market Activity
Bending Spoons went public at $29 a share early July, selling nearly 58 million shares. European tech companies have been tapping debt markets aggressively, raising billions in euro bonds over the past year.
Unusual Acquisition Strategy
Notably, Bending Spoons has never sold a material business. They acquire digital products "not to sell on, but to own and operate for the long term." This involves significant restructuring, rewriting technology, redesigning interfaces, and rebuilding monetization strategies, often with AI at their core.