What closed, and on what terms
Bending Spoons, the Milan-based group listed on Nasdaq since July 2026, said on 26 October that it had completed its acquisition of Miro, the online whiteboard used by more than 250,000 organisations. The deal had been announced on 10 September with an expected close in the fourth quarter. It closed early in that window.
It is the second large collaboration tool the company has bought this autumn. On 4 September it completed its purchase of Airtable, its first acquisition since listing. Both deals were for cash, for 100% of the shares, and both companies are now wholly owned.
| Miro | Airtable | |
|---|---|---|
| Agreement announced | 10 September 2026 | 4 August 2026 |
| Completed | 26 October 2026 | 4 September 2026 |
| Enterprise value | $1.355 billion | $1.285 billion |
| Implied equity value, including net cash | About $1.79 billion | About $2.25 billion |
| Consideration | All cash | All cash |
| Annual recurring revenue, as stated by the buyer | About $600 million, nearly 90% from business and enterprise customers | About $480 million as of June 2026 |
| Customers | More than 250,000 organisations, more than 100 million users | More than 500,000 organisations |
| Pricing changes announced | None | None |
The reinvestment is the unusual detail
The filing for the Miro close adds one thing the September announcement only foreshadowed. Certain former Miro shareholders put about $295 million of their proceeds into roughly 6.2 million newly issued Bending Spoons shares, in a private placement. People who were paid to leave Miro chose to take part of that payment as a stake in the new owner.
That is a statement of confidence in Bending Spoons as an investment. It is not a statement about Miro’s pricing, roadmap or headcount, and it should not be read as one. Shareholders who expect an owner to raise revenue per customer have every reason to want a share of the result.
What it does to the buyer’s numbers
Bending Spoons said its outlook of 13 August covered only businesses it owned on 12 August, which excludes both Miro and Airtable. It expects to include them when it next reports. The first public view of how the two products are being run will therefore come through the parent’s results, not through either product’s own announcements, and it is worth reading those results with that in mind.
What Bending Spoons has said, and what it has not
Read closely, the announcements are specific about intent and silent about everything a customer would budget against.
On Miro
At announcement, Bending Spoons chief executive Luca Ferrari said the company plans to "invest substantially in the fundamentals that its customers value", naming performance, reliability and functionality. On completion, Miro co-founder and chief executive Andrey Khusid said that in Bending Spoons, Miro "has an owner who invests for the long term and cares deeply about product quality".
Neither release says anything about Miro’s headcount, and no leadership change has been announced. The announcement does note, in describing Bending Spoons generally, that its transformations typically involve reorganising teams, which is the closest either document comes to the subject.
On Airtable
Bending Spoons said at completion that its priorities are "investing heavily in Airtable’s product, customer support, and go-to-market capabilities". The same release notes, in describing the company generally, that its transformations typically involve reorganising teams. It gave no Airtable headcount and announced no specific change.
What is missing from both
There is no statement on pricing, plan structure, free tiers, contract terms or data handling for either product. That absence is normal for a completion announcement and it cuts both ways. It means nothing has changed. It also means nothing has been promised, and a customer whose renewal falls in the next six months has no public commitment to rely on.
The honest summary for 27 October 2026 is that both products work exactly as they did, under an owner whose intentions are stated in general terms and whose methods are documented in detail elsewhere.
What the record shows, and where it does not apply
We set out the full pattern in the Bending Spoons playbook, and the wider context of this year’s deals in what acquisitions do to the software you use. The short version, limited to what is documented:
- Evernote: layoffs followed the 2023 acquisition, and the free plan was cut to 50 notes.
- WeTransfer: staff were cut after the July 2024 acquisition, and the free plan gained a limit of 10 transfers a month.
- Vimeo: layoffs after the 2025 close affected most of the workforce, including the entire video team, according to TechCrunch.
- Filmic: acquired in 2022, with the entire staff laid off in December 2023.
- AOL, Eventbrite and Vimeo together: the company says it added 1,830 full-time equivalent staff through those three deals and expects only a few hundred to remain once the transformations are substantially complete.
Bending Spoons also says it aims to hold what it buys permanently and has never sold an acquired business. That is the company’s own claim, and it matters: the products above still run.
Why Miro and Airtable may not follow the consumer pattern
The changes most people remember, the 50 note cap and the 10 transfer limit, landed on free users of consumer products. Miro is a different business. Nearly 90% of its recurring revenue comes from business and enterprise customers, and more than 750 customers each pay it over $100,000 a year. Airtable counts its customers as organisations, more than 500,000 of them, rather than as individuals.
Revenue of that shape is mostly held under contract. An owner cannot reprice a signed enterprise agreement mid-term, so the levers that remain are the ones that act at renewal, on new customers, and on self-serve plans paid by card. That is where any change would show first, if one comes.
What we are not saying
We are not predicting a price rise at Miro or Airtable. None has been announced, and the stated priorities are investment in product and support. The record above is the reason to prepare, not evidence of what will happen. A customer who prepares and sees no change has lost an afternoon. One who does not prepare and sees a change has lost their negotiating position.
Every acquisition since 2022, what changed and roughly when.
What to do now, for either product
The useful work is the same for both tools, and almost all of it is cheaper to do before a change than after.
Find your renewal date and your notice period
Pull the order form, not the invoice. The two dates that matter are when the term ends and how much notice either side must give before it renews automatically. If your renewal falls within six months, you are the customer whose terms will be set by the new owner first, and you should know that now.
Ask for price protection while nothing has changed
A renewal cap, a fixed price for a multi-year term or a written commitment on the current plan is easiest to obtain when the vendor has said nothing about pricing, because agreeing costs it nothing today. Ask for it in writing as part of the renewal, and ask specifically whether the plan you are on will continue to be sold. Price protection on a plan that is retired is worth less than it looks; we covered that pattern in legacy plan retirements.
Check the data terms you already have
Read the data processing agreement for three things: how you are told about new subprocessors, what happens to your data at termination, and how long you have to export it. A change of owner often brings a change of infrastructure, and the subprocessor notice is the first place it becomes visible.
Run a real export and open it
Export something you actually depend on and inspect the result. For Miro, try a large board in every format your plan offers. A board exported as an image or PDF preserves what it looked like, not the objects on it, which is the difference between an archive and a migration. For Airtable, a CSV carries rows and values; it does not carry the automations, interfaces and scripts that usually make a base valuable. Write down what was missing. That list is the true cost of leaving.
Price one alternative with your own data
Not a shortlist. One trial, with a real board or a real base, to learn whether migration is a day or a month. That number decides whether a future price change is an irritation or something you cannot refuse. The two sections that follow list the candidates worth trialling.
Do not migrate on the news
Both products work, and both have new owners promising investment. Moving a team off a working tool because of a headline costs more than most price rises would. The aim is to be able to leave, not to leave.
Miro alternatives worth pricing
Start with Miro’s current pricing so you have a baseline, then compare like for like. The replacements fall into three groups.
Dedicated whiteboards
Mural is the closest like-for-like replacement for workshop and facilitation use. Check Mural’s pricing against your seat count rather than the headline per-user rate, because facilitation tools are often priced around who can create boards rather than who can view them.
Whiteboards inside a tool you already pay for
FigJam is the obvious candidate for any team already on Figma, because it sits inside the same account and file structure. Microsoft Whiteboard is the equivalent for organisations on Microsoft 365; check whether your existing licence already covers it before paying for anything. Neither will suit every Miro use, but for teams that use Miro mainly for quick sessions they may remove the need for a separate subscription entirely.
Diagramming-first tools
Lucid’s products, including Lucidchart, suit teams whose boards are really process maps, architecture diagrams and org charts. Our Lucidchart vs Miro comparison sets out where each is stronger. For lighter use, Excalidraw and Whimsical cover sketching and simple flows at a fraction of the scope.
The full list is on the Miro alternatives page. The practical test for any of them is the same: import one of your largest boards and see what survives.
Airtable alternatives worth pricing
Airtable is harder to leave than Miro, because the value usually sits in the logic around the data rather than in the data itself. Begin with Airtable’s current plans, then sort alternatives by what you would be rebuilding.
No-code platforms closest to Airtable
SmartSuite positions itself squarely against Airtable and is worth including in a trial, though it is not yet in our catalogue. Softr began as a way to build apps on top of Airtable data, which makes it a natural route for teams whose Airtable use is mostly portals and internal apps; see Airtable vs Softr.
Open-source and self-hosted
Baserow and NocoDB are the two open-source options most teams consider, and both can be self-hosted, which removes the question of a future owner’s pricing altogether at the cost of running it yourself. Our Airtable vs Baserow and Airtable vs NocoDB comparisons cover the trade-offs.
Mainstream work management
If the base is really a project tracker, a work management tool may fit better than another database. Smartsheet is the most spreadsheet-shaped, monday.com and ClickUp are stronger on task workflow, and Notion suits teams whose bases sit alongside a lot of documentation.
Browse the rest on the Airtable alternatives page. Whichever you trial, rebuild one automation, not just one table. That is the part that decides whether migration is realistic.
What to watch over the next six months
None of the following is a prediction. Each is a signal that is cheap to check and that has historically come before visible change.
- The pricing pages. Note today’s plans, limits and per-seat rates for both products. A change you can compare against is a change you can negotiate; one you cannot is just a new price.
- Self-serve and free plans. These are the plans not protected by a negotiated contract, so they are where any repricing would be easiest to see first.
- Support response times and account contacts. The departure of a familiar account manager, or a slower ticket queue, has tended to precede announcements rather than follow them.
- Subprocessor and terms updates. Infrastructure consolidation shows up in the legal notices before it shows up anywhere else.
- Bending Spoons’ next results. The first figures that include Miro and Airtable will show how the parent describes them, and that description is the best public guide to its plans.
Bending Spoons has said it intends to keep buying. Anyone using a tool it owns, or one that looks like the products it buys, is better served by a habit of checking these signals than by waiting for an email. For the broader pressure on software valuations that is producing deals like these, see what the SaaSpocalypse means for buyers.
Questions people ask
- When did Bending Spoons complete the Miro acquisition?
On 26 October 2026. The deal was announced on 10 September 2026 with an expected close in the fourth quarter, and was completed as an all-cash purchase of 100% of Miro’s shares at an enterprise value of $1.355 billion.
- How much did Bending Spoons pay for Miro and Airtable?
Miro at an enterprise value of $1.355 billion, or about $1.79 billion in equity value including Miro’s net cash. Airtable at an enterprise value of $1.285 billion, or about $2.25 billion in equity value including net cash. Both were all cash. Former Miro shareholders reinvested about $295 million in roughly 6.2 million new Bending Spoons shares.
- Will Miro or Airtable prices go up under Bending Spoons?
No price change had been announced for either product as of 27 October 2026, and it would be wrong to say one is coming. Bending Spoons has raised revenue per user at earlier acquisitions, including tighter free plans at Evernote and WeTransfer, which is why it is sensible to check your renewal date and ask for price protection now.
- Does anything change for Miro customers right away?
Nothing has been announced. Miro continues to operate, existing contracts remain in force, and Bending Spoons has said it will invest in performance, reliability and functionality. No headcount or leadership change has been announced.
- How do I export my data from Miro or Airtable?
Use the export options your plan provides and then open the files to check what came across. Board images and PDFs keep the appearance of a Miro board but not its editable objects. Airtable CSV exports keep records and values but not automations, interfaces or scripts. Note what is missing, because that is the real migration cost.
- What are the best alternatives to Miro and Airtable?
For Miro, Mural is the closest replacement, FigJam and Microsoft Whiteboard suit teams already on Figma or Microsoft 365, and Lucidchart suits diagram-heavy use. For Airtable, consider SmartSuite, Softr, the open-source Baserow and NocoDB, and Smartsheet.
- Has Bending Spoons ever shut down a product it bought?
The company says it aims to hold acquisitions permanently and has never sold one, and its major products continue to run. It has made deep staff reductions after several deals, including laying off Filmic’s entire staff in December 2023, having bought it in 2022.
Sources
Every price, limit and date above was checked against these pages on the day shown. Where a figure has since moved, the vendor’s own page is the authority and this one is a snapshot.
- 1Bending Spoons completes the acquisition of Miro · Bending Spoons (SEC Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1)Primary. Completion on 26 October 2026, all-cash terms, the $295 million reinvestment for about 6.2 million shares, customer figures and the outlook exclusion.Checked
- 2Bending Spoons completes the acquisition of Airtable · Bending SpoonsPrimary. Airtable completion on 4 September 2026, all-cash terms, 500,000 organisations and the stated investment priorities.Checked
- 3Bending Spoons enters into a definitive agreement to acquire Miro for $1.355 billion · Bending Spoons via Business WirePrimary. The 10 September announcement: $1.79 billion equity value, about $600 million ARR with nearly 90% from business and enterprise, 750 customers above $100,000 and the stated investment priorities.Checked
- 4Bending Spoons has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Airtable for $1.285 billion · Bending SpoonsPrimary. The 4 August agreement, $1.285 billion enterprise value, about $2.25 billion equity value and about $480 million ARR as of June 2026.Checked
- 5What is Bending Spoons? Everything to know about AOL’s acquirer · TechCrunchPost-acquisition history at Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo and Filmic, the 1,830 staff figure and the hold-forever claim.Checked