Bending Spoons to buy collaboration tools maker Miro for $1.36B, 90% less than its 2022 valuation

Bending Spoons is buying Miro for $1.36 billion in cash, a massive drop in valuation from its 2021 peak of $17.5 billion. The Italian company is acquiring a workplace collaboration startup that was once valued at $17.5 billion but has since seen its growth slow. Miro was founded in 2011 as a whiteboarding tool called RealtimeBoard and quickly gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company's platform can integrate with over 250 apps and has partnerships with major companies like Atlassian, Cisco, Microsoft, and Zoom. Despite its impressive growth, Miro's valuation has plummeted, with the company now valued at 90% less than its 2021 valuation. Bending Spoons is likely happy to snap up a company with a decent recurring revenue and established user base for a fraction of its former value. The deal is the latest in Bending Spoons' trend of buying software companies for pennies on the dollar. Other notable acquisitions include Airtable, which was valued at over $11 billion in 2021 but sold to Bending Spoons for $1.28 billion last month. Miro's board and investors have agreed to sell at a price that may be influenced by the current market conditions. The company's growth has slowed, and the market may have become less confident in the ability of SaaS companies to go public or find comparable exits. Bending Spoons is a serial acquirer of software companies, and this deal is another example of its strategy to acquire companies that have matured into slower-growing but still substantial businesses.