Bending Spoons S.p.A. announced plans to acquire Airtable Inc., the cloud-based spreadsheet and productivity platform, in an all-cash deal worth $1.285 billion2.
The acquisition price represents a steep decline from Airtable's peak valuation of $11.7 billion following its most recent funding round. The deal is also below the approximately $1.4 billion Airtable has raised from its investors, meaning the acquisition will not fully return the capital put into the company.
At its peak in 2021, Airtable was valued at over $11 billion1. Earlier this year, its shares were trading on secondary markets at a valuation of roughly $4 billion.
ANALYSIS The transaction illustrates the magnitude of the valuation correction facing SaaS companies that raised at peak 2021 levels. A sale price below total capital raised means investors collectively face a loss on the deal, despite Airtable's established market position.
Bending Spoons, an Italy-based technology holding company, has built a portfolio through acquisitions of established software products. Airtable, which offers a no-code platform combining spreadsheet and database functionality, had been a prominent name in the productivity software category during the cloud-software boom.
ANALYSIS The all-cash structure of the deal removes equity-rollover uncertainty for Airtable's existing shareholders, though the price itself delivers a fraction of the value implied by prior funding rounds.