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Bending Spoons has been on an acquisition spree and tends to cut jobs in the businesses it buys.
Dutch file-sharing platform WeTransfer is facing some serious internal changes, as its new owner Bending Spoons plans to cut 75pc of its staff.
Bending Spoons acquired WeTransfer at the end of July as part of an ambitious acquisition spree the company has been on in recent years. Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari said at the time of the acquisition that the company felt a “strong sense of responsibility” to help WeTransfer and its brand “thrive for many years to come”.
In a statement to TechCrunch, Ferrari confirmed the job cuts and said that when it acquires a business, Bending Spoons looks for the best vision of the business to keep it operating.
“While we don’t enjoy making painful or unpopular decisions, we’re prepared to do so when we believe it’s the right thing to do to help the business thrive,” Ferrari said. “In this particular case, the vision we developed is of a smaller, more sharply focused WeTransfer organisation, which we believe will be better positioned to serve WeTransfer’s success with a long-term view,”
Founded in 2009, WeTransfer developed a quick and secure way to send large files around the world and claims to have tens of millions active customers. TechCrunch reports that the company has more than 350 staff.
The job cuts plan is not unusual for Bending Spoons, which has slashed roles in various organisations after it acquired them. Earlier this year, Bending Spoons acquired events platform Meetup and said it would move Meetup’s operations to Europe and significantly reduce the start-up’s team size.
In 2022, Bending Spoons announced its acquisition of the popular note-taking and task management app Evernote. After this acquisition, Evernote wound down its operations in the US and Chile and moved its business to Europe as part of the transition.
Headquartered in Milan, Bending Spoons develops a suite of mobile apps with around 200m global monthly users combined, including video editor Splice and AI-assisted photo editor Remini. The company claims to have served nearly 1bn customers worldwide through its suite of products.
The acquisitions have helped Bending Spoons to rapidly expand its operations. In February the company raised $155m and was valued at $2.5bn. At the time, the company said it had around 100m global monthly users and that it had more than 500m customers worldwide.
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