By Elvira Pollina and Echo Wang
MILAN/NEW YORK, April 23(Reuters) - Bending Spoons, a European tech firm whose business model is based on reviving companies, has picked banks to organise a potential $20 billion U.S. initial public offering this year, two people close to the matter said.
The Milan-based firm, whose name is inspired by the Hollywood movie "The Matrix" and which last year bought the web portal AOL, has lined up Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Allen & Co, Bank of America, BNP Paribas and Jefferies,
one of the sources said.
The listing could value the company at around $20 billion, the people said, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
They added it is expected in the coming months, with one of them saying it could happen before the northern hemisphere summer, subject to market conditions.
Bending Spoons, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas and Jefferies declined to comment. Representatives for Allen&Co and Bank of America did not immediately respond to request for comment.
GROWTH THROUGH ACQUISITIONS
The company has grown through acquisitions of tech firms, including video platform Vimeo and the apps WeTransfer and Evernote, taking its value in a funding round last year to about $11 billion.
In an interview with Reuters in November, Chief Executive Luca Ferrari said the firm was ready to go public and that it could list as soon as this year, while stopping short of committing to a specific timetable.
A year earlier, he had said that if Bending Spoons decided on an IPO, it would probably choose a U.S. listing, citing the higher valuations typically commanded by technology companies in U.S. markets.
Markets have been expecting a flurry of IPOs in a potentially record year, although the uncertainty and economic damage caused by the Iran war may disrupt some plans.
Bending Spoons may also look to avoid overlapping with some of the trillion-dollar names planning to list such as SpaceX, the sources said.
The firm expected its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to reach $1.4 billion in 2026, from $700 million in 2025, Ferrari told Reuters in November.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina in Milan and Echo Wang in New York. Editing by Barbara Lewis)
