- Bending Spoons announces agreement to buy AOL for $1.5 billion
- The iconic internet provider had been part of Yahoo
- Last entry to the Bending Spoons group, but what will it do with AOL?
For many of us, AOL is a relic of the golden age of the Internet, but it turns out that the company is still alive and thriving, and remains an attractive investment proposition.
Italian software company Bending Spoons has revealed that AOL will be the next big addition to its portfolio, at a cost of around $1.5 billion.
AOL still offers a web portal and email service for users, and recently made headlines for closing its dial-up Internet offering in August 2025.
AOL + Bending Spoons
Bending Spoons has acquired a number of well-known software names in recent years, including WeTransfer, Evernote and Vimeo, and says it has no plans to shut down AOL or spin off its tools.
The company claims that AOL remains one of the top ten most used email providers in the world today, with “a highly retained customer base numbering around 8 million daily users and 30 million monthly active users.”
“AOL is an iconic and beloved company that is healthy, has stood the test of time, and we believe has untold potential,” said Bending Spoons CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari.
“We intend to invest significantly to help the product and business flourish. Bending Spoons has never sold an acquired business; we are confident we are the right long-term steward for AOL and look forward to serving its large and loyal customer base for many years to come.”
Bending Spoons also announced the successful completion of a $2.8 billion debt financing package to fund the acquisition, as well as potential future deals.
One of the most iconic names of the early Internet, AOL spread across millions of American homes and merged with Time Warner in 2001 before being spun off and sold to Verizon for $4.4 billion in 2015.
From there, Verizon merged AOL and Yahoo into a new company, called Oath, which was then sold to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for around $5 billion in 2021.
“AOL and Yahoo share a great history, and our new team has relished the opportunity to return AOL to growth,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo, Inc. “This transaction will allow us to focus more deeply on the aggressive roadmaps we have planned for Yahoo’s core products in the future, while ensuring AOL continues to thrive under the new ownership.”
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