Milan, July 11, 2026, 16:12 CEST
Bending Spoons NASDAQ:BSP hired just 286 people from roughly 800,000 applicants in 2025—an acceptance rate of 0.036%—while its four founders retained 82.71% of voting power after the Milan-based software group went public. The pairing puts two kinds of scarcity at the centre of its first post-IPO test: access to the core team and access to corporate control.
That matters after a rough first full trading week. Nasdaq is closed for the weekend after Bending Spoons finished Friday at $32.91, down 9.3% from Monday and 18.7% from its $40.50 debut close, though still 13.5% above the $29 offer price. Two-thirds of the first-day premium has already gone.
| Nasdaq checkpoint | Share price | Change from IPO price |
|---|---|---|
| Offer price | $29.00 | — |
| July 1 debut close | $40.50 | +39.7% |
| July 6 close | $36.27 | +25.1% |
| July 10 close | $32.91 | +13.5% |
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that about 60,000 applicants cleared the initial screen and took tests, while some 3,300 reached interviews. Candidates are assessed through reasoning tests, interviews and algorithmic scores that are later compared with their performance if hired. “If people looked under the hood at how we do this, they would think we’re crazy,” Chief Executive Luca Ferrari said. The Wall Street Journal
Talent scarcity is only half the model. In 2025, 84% of eligible team members chose to exchange part of their cash salary for stock options—rights to buy shares at a preset price—with participants converting an average 28% of salary. Average annual dilution from equity compensation was 1.5% from 2023 through the first quarter of 2026. The prospectus puts the economic and voting split in sharper terms.
| Operating or ownership measure | Reported figure | Investor reading |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 applicants per hire | About 2,797 | Core talent is hard to replace |
| Hiring acceptance rate | 0.036% | Execution capacity may be a bottleneck |
| Revenue per core FTE “Spooner” | $2.57 million | High output on a company-defined measure |
| Eligible staff choosing options | 84% | Broad economic exposure among the core team |
| Average salary converted by participants | 28% | Employees carry meaningful share-price risk |
| Founders’ post-IPO voting power | 82.71% | Outside shareholders have limited influence |
An Il Foglio commentary published Saturday used Bending Spoons to argue that widening ownership of newly created value may matter more than simply taxing existing wealth. A separate Italian essay on Friday cited the company in a call for more European deeptech capital—funding for businesses built on difficult scientific or engineering advances. Bending Spoons, though, is mainly an acquirer and operator of internet software, not a pure deeptech producer.
Its productivity numbers are strong, but the revenue mix needs care. First-quarter revenue rose 132% to $601.3 million, while organic growth—growth excluding acquired businesses—was 6%. Bending Spoons also said artificial intelligence authored or co-authored more than 90% of its pull requests, proposed code changes submitted for review, by the end of March; about 70% were authored by AI alone.
The denominator is important. Bending Spoons had 2,284 full-time-equivalent team members, including contractors, at the end of March, of whom 1,830 had arrived through the AOL, Eventbrite and Vimeo acquisitions. It said only a few hundred of those acquired workers were expected to remain once restructuring was substantially complete later this year. Joe Hyrkin, the former CEO of acquired publishing platform Issuu, told the Financial Times: “There were lay-offs, but everyone got a good severance, everyone was treated fairly.” Bending Spoons
Constellation Software (TSE:CSU) offers a useful contrast. The Canadian group owns more than 1,100 software businesses that generally retain substantial operating autonomy. Bending Spoons relies more heavily on a central team, common technology and rapid workforce changes. That could produce quicker margin gains, but it also concentrates integration risk in a relatively small group of people.
The IPO itself qualifies the debate over Europe’s capital shortage. Bending Spoons and its shareholders sold 57.97 million shares at $29, raising $1.68 billion, but the company received $953.9 million before fees; selling shareholders took $653.7 million, or about 39% of the gross proceeds. The listing still gave the company publicly traded currency for more deals. “We’re not in a position to announce anything, but we’re very active,” Ferrari told Reuters. AFP
But the downside case is substantial. Bending Spoons entered the market with nearly $4.4 billion of debt, while first-quarter interest expense jumped 382% to $93.2 million. Slower acquisitions, integration delays or customer losses after product and pricing changes could weaken cash generation; the founders’ voting control would leave public investors with few tools to force a change in strategy.
Trading resumes on Monday, July 13. With no published analyst price target yet, the immediate test is whether the shares can hold above $29 as early enthusiasm fades. Investors will also watch for acquisition disclosures, evidence that acquired products are growing rather than merely being cut, and signs that the core team can absorb another large integration without diluting the productivity that made the IPO story work.
Related articles: NASDAQ:BSP
